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Cheese Aigrettes

Cheese Aigrettes are fried cheese fritters made with butter, flour, eggs, water, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 paste

  1. In a saucepan, combine the butter and water and bring to a boil.

  2. Sift the flour and quickly add it to the boiling water, stirring thoroughly.

  3. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Add the seasoning and cheese, mixing well.

Fry

  1. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture into hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

  2. Move the pan to the side of the heat to prevent over-browning.

Serve

  1. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately 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 + 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
Starch gelatinizes in the boiling water, forming a paste that holds the fritters together.
Eggs
Eggs bind the paste and set during frying, giving the fritters structure and lift.
Butter
Fat adds richness and tenderness to the paste and a rounder flavor.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and browns slightly in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying at the right heat. The oil must be hot enough that the paste sets and browns quickly, so the fritters puff rather than absorb oil. Moving the pan to the side of the heat later prevents over-browning before the centre cooks through.

“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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