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Dessert

Cheese Zephyrs

A chilled dessert made with milk, gelatin, cheese, whipped cream, and garnished with coralline pepper and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Zephyrs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. Measure ½ pint of milk and dissolve ¼ ounce of gelatin in it.

  2. Warm the milk until the gelatin is dissolved, then strain it into a clean pan.

  3. Add 2 ounces of grated cheese and stir over low heat for a few minutes.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then fold in ¼ pint of whipped cream.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into small moulds and let set in the refrigerator.

  2. Once set, turn out and garnish each mould with coralline pepper and sieved yolk of egg.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the milk and cheese mixture into a firm, sliceable mould that holds its shape when turned out.
Grated cheese
Adds rich cheese flavour and body to the milk, thickening it slightly as it melts in.
Whipped cream
Folded in at the end to add lightness and a soft, airy texture to the set mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine dissolves in and the cheese melts into.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream. If the mixture is still too hot, the cream will deflate and melt, and the air is lost. Letting it cool slightly first keeps the cream aerated so the set mousse stays light.

“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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