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Scallopped Cheese

A baked cheese dish with butter, breadcrumbs, mustard, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scallopped Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter a scallop dish or other baking form.

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the grated cheese, butter, bread crumbs, mustard, salt, pepper, and egg yolks until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish.

  3. Bake in the oven until golden brown and set, about 20-25 minutes.

Serve

  1. Let it cool slightly before turning out of the mold.

  2. Serve with toast or rusks.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 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

Cheshire cheese
Provides rich savory flavor and helps the mixture bind and brown while baking.
Bread crumbs
Add bulk and body, soaking up butter and egg to give the mixture a soft, set texture.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the mixture brown and stay tender.
Made mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavor that balances the richness of cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Egg yolks set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the centre loose and overbaking can make it dry and tough. Watch for a golden top and a firm centre.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, butter, bread, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, bread, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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