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Dessert

Small Fondues

A small cheese fondue made with cream, grated cheese, egg yolks, and egg whites, baked until risen.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,655 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Small Fondues

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, grated cheese, and egg yolks; beat until well mixed.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until frothy and gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Half fill small buttered paper trays with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 15 minutes until risen and hot.

  2. Serve immediately in a silver dish.

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. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the mixture soft and smooth after baking.
Grated cheese
Provides the main flavour and, as it melts, body to the custard.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help set the mixture as it cooks.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they lighten the mixture and help it rise in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold air that makes the mixture rise. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the puffed, risen texture is lost.

“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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