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 Fondue
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondue
In a saucepan, heat the milk with a pinch of baking soda.
Stir in the bread crumbs and grated cheese until melted.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and add to the mixture.
Add butter, pepper, and salt, mixing well.
Serve
Serve warm, dipping bread into the fondue.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and help it set into a creamy, thickened texture when heated.
- Cheese
- Provides the main flavour and, when melted, the stretchy, creamy body of the fondue.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and add body, thickening the melted cheese so it clings to bread.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that melts the cheese and carries the other ingredients evenly.
The step that matters
Stir in the bread crumbs and grated cheese until melted. Cheese proteins can clump or turn grainy if overheated, so melt it gently over low heat while stirring. Eggs added to very hot mixture can scramble, so the egg step also needs care.
“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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