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English Monkey

A cheese and bread crumb dish with butter, milk, egg yolk, salt, and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

English Monkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese base

  1. Melt the butter in a chafing dish.

  2. Add the cheese and stir until melted.

Add the crumbs and finish

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk.

  2. Add the soaked bread crumbs to the cheese mixture.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg yolk.

  4. Season with salt and paprika to taste.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 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

Eastern cheese
Melts into the base to provide the main flavor and a creamy, smooth texture.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they thicken the mixture and give it body.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the mixture.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture into a smooth, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds fat so the cheese melts smoothly and evenly in the dish.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk can scramble or curdle when added to very hot cheese. Stir steadily as it goes in and avoid letting the mixture boil, so it stays smooth and creamy.

“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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