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Cheese Ramakins

A baked cheese custard served hot in ramekins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Cheese Ramakins

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the mixture

  1. Boil the milk and pour it over the breadcrumbs and butter.

  2. When cool, add the cheese, seasonings, and the yolk of the egg.

  3. Fold in the whipped egg white gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered ramekin cases.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes.

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

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 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

Egg
The whipped white lightens the mixture and helps it rise, while the yolk adds richness and helps bind it.
Cheese
Provides savoury flavour and fat, and helps set the mixture as it cooks.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up the hot milk and butter, giving the mixture body and a soft, tender texture.
Milk
Softens the breadcrumbs and adds moisture, so the mixture bakes creamy rather than dry.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg white gently. Whipped egg white traps air that gives the ramekins their lift. Stirring or beating it hard knocks that air out, so the mixture rises less and bakes denser.

“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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