Name: Cheese Fondu
Ingredients: 1 cup grated cheese; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup milk; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 1 teaspoon mustard

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fondu

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

In a bowl, combine grated cheese, bread crumbs, milk, egg, butter, salt, pepper, and mustard. Mix well until combined.
Pour the mixture into a baking dish.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and bubbly.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese: Melts into the body of the dish and provides rich flavor and savoriness.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and give the mixture body so it holds together rather than pooling.
Milk: Adds moisture and forms the creamy base that sets as it heats.
Egg: Binds the mixture and helps it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and smoother texture, and helps browning on top.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, bread, milk, egg, butter, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, bread, milk, egg, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.