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Fondue

A baked custard of milk, flour, cheese, eggs, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Fondue

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.

Make the base

  1. In a saucepan, mix milk and flour to create a smooth paste.

  2. Add grated cheese, salt, mustard powder, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with milk, then strain and add to the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Incorporate the beaten egg whites until frothy.

  2. Pour the mixture into a deep round tin.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

  4. Serve immediately in the tin with a napkin around it.

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

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the custard-like base as it sets.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to trap air, lightening the texture and helping it rise.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth paste that gives the fondue its body.
Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, adds richness and savouriness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the flour thickens and the eggs enrich.

The step that matters

Incorporate the beaten egg whites until frothy. Egg whites must be beaten to hold air; if they are overmixed or deflated, the mixture loses its lift and bakes up dense.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, flour, cheese, pepper, butter. 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.

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