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Dessert

A Fondu

A custard made from potato flour, cheese, butter, milk, eggs, and seasonings baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

A Fondu

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.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix potato flour, grated cheese, butter, milk or cream, salt, and pepper until smooth.

  2. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy.

  4. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a deep dish, filling it only halfway.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until risen and golden.

  3. Serve immediately to prevent it from falling.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air so the custard rises, while the yolks add richness and set the structure.
Potato flour
Starch thickens the batter and gives the custard a tender, smooth body.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and fat, and helps the custard brown on top.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender texture.
Milk or cream
Supplies moisture that the starch and eggs set into a custard.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Whipped whites hold the air that lifts the custard. Stirring or deflating them hard removes that air, so the dish rises less and may collapse after baking.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cheese, butter, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cheese, butter, milk, pepper, egg. 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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