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Stewed Cheese

A hot cheese sauce made by mixing grated cheese, cream, and egg, then cooking with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a basin, mix the grated cheese with the cream and beaten egg.

  2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.

  3. Stir in the cheese mixture and cook until well incorporated.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, either with sauce or plain.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Cheese
Supplies the main flavour and, as it melts, the body of the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture for a smooth, pourable texture.
Egg
Thickens the sauce as its proteins set when gently heated.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the sauce stay smooth.

The step that matters

Stir in the cheese mixture and cook until well incorporated. Overheating makes the egg proteins tighten and scramble, and the cheese can turn grainy or oily. Keep the heat moderate and stir steadily so the sauce thickens evenly and stays smooth.

“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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