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Cheese Toasts

A toasted bread topped with a creamy cheese and egg mixture seasoned with cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cheese Toasts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. Cut the cheese into very thin slices and place in a saucepan.

  2. Add half the milk, salt, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  3. Stir constantly over medium heat until the cheese melts.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix with the remaining milk.

  5. Stir the egg mixture into the melted cheese and cook for 1 minute.

Serve on toast

  1. Prepare the toast by cutting off the crusts and spreading the cheese mixture on top.

  2. Serve on a hot dish and sprinkle with additional cayenne if desired.

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

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 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

Eggs
Thicken the cheese mixture as they cook, giving it a soft, set texture.
Cheese
Melts to form the creamy base of the topping and provides rich flavour.
Milk
Loosens the melted cheese and keeps the mixture smooth and spreadable.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel to the cheese mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the melted cheese. Eggs thicken when heated, so adding them to very hot cheese without constant stirring can cause curdling or scrambling. Stir steadily and keep the heat moderate to keep the mixture smooth.

“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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