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Fondu Au Gratin

A baked egg and cheese gratin with a buttery, flour-based sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Fondu Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sauce base

  1. Melt 2 ounces of butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the flour and mix well.

  3. Add the egg yolks and milk.

  4. Let it simmer for 2 minutes while stirring.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Stir in shredded Gruyere cheese.

  7. Season with salt and pepper.

Fold and bake

  1. Beat 2 egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently fold them into the mixture.

  3. Pour into a shallow tin.

  4. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  5. Dot with remaining butter.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + gruyere cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together323 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Yolks thicken the base and whites, whipped to stiff peaks, lighten and set the gratin.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the bread crumbs brown on top.
Flour
Combined with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth base.
Gruyere cheese
Melts into the base for savoury flavour and a rich, stretchy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it body and moisture once thickened.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the gratin rise and turn light. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves the dish dense.

“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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