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Dessert

Cheese Aigrettes

A fried batter of flour, eggs, and cheese, served with extra cheese on top.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Aigrettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a saucepan, bring the cold water and butter to a boil.

  2. Once boiling, stir in the flour and beat until smooth.

  3. Cook until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.

  4. Let it cool slightly, then beat in the eggs one at a time.

  5. Stir in 2 ounces of cheese, cayenne, and salt.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop small portions into hot fat (not quite smoking) and turn when they rise to the surface.

  2. Fry until golden brown and drain on kitchen paper.

  3. Serve in a pyramid on a napkin, with the remaining cheese sprinkled on top.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

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

Eggs
Bind the paste and give the fritters structure and a light, puffy texture.
Flour
Starch that thickens the paste and sets into the fritter's body when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the water-based paste, improving flavor and tenderness.
Grated cheese
Contributes savory flavor and fat, and browns slightly in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Cook the paste until it pulls away from the pan. Cooking drives off moisture and gelatinizes the starch so the paste holds its shape. Under-cooked paste is too wet, so fritters spread and turn heavy in the fat.

“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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