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Dessert

Fondue a LA Parisienne

A custard-like dessert made by boiling milk, butter, and salt, then adding flour, eggs, and baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Fondue a LA Parisienne

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Boil the milk with the butter and salt.

  2. Gradually mix in the flour and stir over the heat for five minutes.

  3. Add the egg yolks and the beaten egg whites.

  4. The batter should be the thickness of good cream.

Bake

  1. Make little paper trays and fill them three-quarters full.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for twenty minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Milk
Provides liquid that turns the batter into a smooth, pourable base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Flour
Thickens the boiled milk and gives the batter structure as it sets.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter as it cooks.
Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, helping the fondue rise and turn light.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolks and the beaten egg whites.. Whites beaten to a froth hold air that lifts the batter in the oven. Mixing them in too hard knocks out that air, so the fondue bakes flatter and 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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