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Dessert

Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese fondue cake made with butter, flour, eggs, cheese, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Cheese Fondu

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Add the grated cheese.

  4. Stir for 20 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat.

  6. Let cool.

Add the eggs

  1. Beat the egg yolks.

  2. Add them to the cooled mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites separately.

  4. Fold them in just before baking.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased fondue dish or round cake tin lined with frilled paper.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 45 minutes.

  3. Serve hot, as it will fall when cooling.

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 + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the base while whites, folded in whipped, lighten the mixture and give it rise.
Butter
Fat that enriches the base and carries flavour into the cheese mixture.
Flour
Starch that thickens the melted butter and cheese into a structured base.
Grated cheese
Melts into the base to add savoury flavour and richness.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the batter for a tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when beaten separately and folded in gently just before baking. Stirring them in hard knocks out the air, so the cake rises less and turns dense.

“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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