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Fondue

A cheese fondue made with eggs, Gruyère, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gruyere cheese and butter work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 323 recipes. Both carry gamma-decalactone, which smells peach, creamy. The science ↓

Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh the eggs according to the number of guests.

  2. Measure Gruyère cheese and butter based on the weight of the eggs.

Make the fondue

  1. Break the eggs into a saucepan and beat them well.

  2. Add the butter and grated or sliced cheese to the eggs.

  3. Place the saucepan over medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is set but not too hard.

  4. Season with salt and a generous amount of black pepper.

  5. Serve on a slightly warmed plate.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Gruyere cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + gruyere cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Gruyere cheese + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into a thick, custard-like base that holds the melted cheese together.
Gruyere cheese
Melts into the eggs to add rich flavour and a creamy, stretchy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for silkiness and richness, helping the mixture stay smooth as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring over medium heat. Eggs set quickly and can turn grainy or scrambled if overheated. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the mixture smooth and creamy, so it stops just at the point where it is set but not hard.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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