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Swiss Cheese Dartois

A pastry filled with Gruyère cheese, milk, cornflour, eggs, and anchovy paste, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Swiss Cheese Dartois

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line a dozen small dariole moulds with very thin pastry.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil and add the butter.

  2. Mix in the cornflour and grated Gruyère cheese, stirring well over the heat.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten eggs, seasoning with salt and cayenne.

  4. Half fill the moulds with the mixture, adding a small amount of anchovy paste in the center of each.

  5. Cover with the remaining mixture and sprinkle the tops with grated cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake until light brown, then turn out and serve quickly on a folded napkin.

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

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

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

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

  3. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Gruyere cheese + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gruyère cheese
Melts into the filling to give a rich, savoury cheese flavour.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk mixture so it holds its shape in the moulds.
Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornflour thickens.

The step that matters

Half fill the moulds and bake until light brown. Overfilling or underbaking can leave the centres wet or cause spills, while overbaking dries the cheese filling. Watching for an even light brown colour helps the dariole set and hold its shape when turned out.

“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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