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Fondu

A baked dish of bread crumbs, minced meat, onion pulp, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in boiling milk until soft.

  2. Mix in the minced cold meat, optional bacon, and onion pulp.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, then stir in the beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a tart dish and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a strong froth and fold into the mixture.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. Serve with gravy on the side.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture, while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise and set.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they absorb liquid and give the fondue a soft, moist body.
Milk
Softens the bread and adds moisture so the mixture bakes tender rather than dry.
Minced cold meat
Forms the main savory body of the dish and adds meaty flavour and substance.
Onion
Boiled until soft and pulped, it adds sweetness and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites whipped to a strong froth trap air that lifts the mixture while baking. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it and the fondue bakes flat and dense.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, meat, ham, pepper, egg, butter. 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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