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English Monkey

A cheese bread made with butter, breadcrumbs, cheese, milk, eggs, and seasonings, served on crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

English Monkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine melted butter, bread crumbs, cheese, and milk.

  2. Stir until the cheese is melted.

  3. If the mixture is too thick, add more milk.

  4. Season with salt, paprika, and Worcestershire sauce.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

  2. Do not cook after adding eggs.

  3. Serve on hot crackers.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 custard-like texture as it cools.
Cheese
Melts into the mixture to provide rich flavor and a creamy, stringy texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter to give the mixture body and a soft, spreadable texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the mixture so the cheese melts smoothly.

The step that matters

Do not cook after adding eggs. Egg proteins set with heat and turn grainy or curdled if the mixture is overheated after the eggs go in. Keep the heat low and stop once they are mixed through.

“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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