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Cheese Fondu

A melted cheese mixture served with toast or wafers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Fondu

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondue

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the milk and baking soda, stirring well.

  3. Mix in the bread crumbs and grated cheese until smooth.

  4. Season with salt and paprika.

  5. Stir in the beaten eggs and cook until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve on toast or wafers.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 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
Set and thicken the cheese mixture as they cook, giving it a creamy body.
Grated cheese
Provides the main flavor and melts into a smooth, stretchy base.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cheese melts into, keeping the mixture smooth.
Fresh bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the fondue thicken and hold together.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cheese melt smoothly.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten eggs and cook until thickened. Eggs set when heated, so cooking them too hard or too fast can make the mixture curdle or grainy. Keep heat gentle and stir constantly to get a smooth, thick result.

“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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