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Cheese Aigrettes

A fried cheese and egg mixture served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cheese Aigrettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Pour in the water and stir until it boils.

  4. Cook well, then let it cool.

  5. Incorporate the cheese and beaten egg yolk gradually.

  6. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  2. Serve immediately while hot.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and water into a paste that holds the puffs together.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the dough and add structure; the whites are not used in the record's steps.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the dough.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough base.

The step that matters

Cook the panade well before cooling. The flour and water mixture must be cooked until it boils and thickens, which gelatinizes the starch. Under-cooked paste stays loose and may not hold its shape or puff properly when fried.

“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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