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Stewed Cheese

A melted cheese sauce thickened with egg yolks, mustard, and cayenne, served hot over toasted or fried bread.

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

Stewed Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese base

  1. Combine the sliced cheese and ale or Chablis in a clean quart saucepan.

  2. Stir over medium heat until the cheese is melted.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the dry mustard and cayenne.

  2. Stir the egg mixture into the melted cheese for two minutes.

  3. Serve hot with toasted or fried bread.

  4. Optionally, brown the top with a hot iron or salamander.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheddar cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,436 recipes

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

  3. Cheddar cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together708 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mustard + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into a smooth, rich base that gives the stew its body and flavour.
Egg yolks
Thicken the melted cheese into a creamy, spoonable texture as they gently cook.
Old ale or chablis
Thins the melted cheese and adds a light acidity that balances its richness.
Dry mustard
Adds sharp, savoury flavour that cuts through the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Stir the egg mixture into the melted cheese for two minutes. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or scramble if the mixture is too hot or stirred too little. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring constantly lets the yolks blend smoothly into the cheese.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheddar cheese, egg, butter, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheddar cheese, egg, butter, bread. 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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