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Bread

Toasted Cheese

A toasted bread topped with melted cheese, milk, butter, and egg, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Toasted Cheese

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 ↓

Toasted Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese mixture

  1. In a bain-marie saucepan, combine the sliced cheese and milk.

  2. Stir over low heat until the cheese is dissolved.

  3. Add the butter and beaten egg, mixing well.

Assemble and serve

  1. Prepare slices of toast on a dish over hot water.

  2. Spread the cheese mixture on the toast and let it brown before the fire.

  3. Serve immediately while very hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rich cheese
Melts into a smooth, creamy base that forms the topping.
Milk
Thins the melted cheese so it spreads easily and stays smooth.
Butter
Adds fat for a silkier texture and richer flavor.
Egg
Thickens the cheese mixture as it heats, helping it set and hold on the toast.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until the cheese is dissolved. High heat or overheating can make cheese separate and turn grainy or oily, and the egg can scramble. Gentle heat keeps the mixture smooth and emulsified.

“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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