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Snack

An English Monkey

A fried bread crumb and cheese snack with egg, salt, cayenne, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

An English Monkey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk for 10-15 minutes.

  2. Melt the butter in a pan.

  3. Add the cheese and stir until melted.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in the soaked crumbs, beaten egg, salt, cayenne, and bicarbonate of soda.

  2. Cook for 5 minutes and serve on wafers.

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. 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. Milk + cheesetop 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

Cheese
Melts into the base to give the dish its rich, savoury flavour and body.
Egg
Sets when heated, binding the mixture and giving it structure.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and thicken the mixture, adding body and softness.
Milk
Provides moisture and helps the crumbs soften and blend with the cheese.

The step that matters

Mix in the soaked crumbs, beaten egg, salt, cayenne, and bicarbonate of soda.. The egg sets with heat, so it should be stirred in evenly and cooked gently while stirring. Adding it to a very hot pan can scramble it and leave the texture grainy.

“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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