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Cheese Aigrettes

Fried cheese balls made from butter, water, flour, egg, Parmesan, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cheese Aigrettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the choux paste

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the water, and bring to a boil.

  2. Stir in the flour quickly until the mixture forms a ball and leaves the sides of the saucepan.

  3. Beat in the egg and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Add the grated Parmesan cheese and let the mixture cool on a plate.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a deep pan of oil.

  2. Dip two teaspoons into the oil.

  3. Scoop a small piece of the mixture with one spoon and drop it into the oil with the other.

  4. Repeat until all the mixture is used.

  5. Fry gently for about twelve minutes until golden brown, then drain on lace paper and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  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

Flour
Forms the starch structure that holds the paste together as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the paste and adds richness and structure as it sets during frying.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the paste and gives a tender texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and a toasty note as it browns in the oil.
Water
Provides the liquid that turns the butter and flour into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour quickly. Flour must be stirred in fast so it cooks evenly and the paste forms a smooth ball. Starch that cooks unevenly leaves lumps and a weak structure that can burst or collapse in the hot oil.

“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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