Skip to main content
Main

Vermicelli a LA Creme

A creamy vermicelli dish baked with cheese and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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.

Cook the vermicelli

  1. Boil salted water and add the vermicelli.

  2. Cook for 10 minutes, then strain.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the flour.

  2. Gradually stir in the milk and stock.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes.

  4. Season the mixture well.

  5. Add the vermicelli.

  6. Transfer to a shallow pie dish.

Add the cheese and brown

  1. In a separate pan, combine the cheese, cream, and seasonings. Stir until melted.

  2. Pour over the vermicelli.

  3. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven or under a 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,955 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + milktop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,424 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Vermicelli
Forms the bulk of the dish, giving it a soft, starchy body that the sauce coats.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries the flour's starch into a smooth base.
Flour
Thickens the milk and stock into a sauce as it cooks.
Grated cheese
Adds rich flavour and, once melted, a creamy texture that browns on top.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, adding softness and mild sweetness.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the cheese topping.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must cook in the melted butter and the liquid must be added gradually and kept boiling for a couple of minutes. This cooks out the raw starch taste and lets the sauce thicken evenly without lumps.

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Macaroni and CheeseIllustrationMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesIllustration of Cheese MakingIllustrationCheese Making50 recipesIllustration of Cheese FrittersIllustrationCheese Fritters34 recipesIllustration of Cheese OmeletteIllustrationCheese Omelette31 recipes