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 ↓
Cheese Sauce I
Ingredients
Directions
Soak the crumbs
Heat the milk and add the bread crumbs; soak for 10 minutes.
Make and serve the sauce
Reheat the soaked bread and milk in a double boiler; add the butter, cheese, and seasonings.
Stir until the cheese is melted, then add the slightly beaten egg.
Cook for one more minute; serve on toast or crackers.
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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up milk and swell, helping thicken the sauce to a smooth body.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the cheese and crumbs are combined into.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the sauce feel rich and smooth on the palate.
- Cheese
- Provides the main flavor and melts into the sauce to make it creamy.
- Egg
- Sets with gentle heat, adding body and further thickening to the sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the egg. Egg proteins set when heated and can curdle or turn grainy if the sauce is too hot. Add the slightly beaten egg once the cheese has melted, then cook gently for only the stated minute so it thickens without scrambling.
“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.
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Macaroni and Cheese102 recipes
White Bread80 recipes
Bread Omelette60 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.