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Fondue a LA Neapolitaine

A baked macaroni fondue with butter, flour, milk, cheeses, egg whites, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and gruyere cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 152 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Fondue a LA Neapolitaine

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, beat together the butter and flour with a wooden spoon.

  2. Add the milk and stir over the heat, boiling for 20 minutes.

Combine and bake

  1. Stir in the boiled macaroni, Parmesan, Gruyere, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  2. Whip the egg whites and fold them into the mixture.

  3. Fill a croustade with the preparation and bake for 1.5 hours at 350°F (175°C).

Serve

  1. Serve the Fondue on a folded napkin spread on a 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. Parmesan cheese + gruyere cheesetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, giving the baked fondue a light, puffed texture.
Butter and flour
Together they form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth base.
Parmesan and gruyere cheese
Melt into the sauce to add savory, rich flavor and body.
Macaroni
Adds bulk and a starchy, tender body to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently preserves the air trapped in the whites; stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving the baked fondue dense instead of light.

“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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