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Dessert

Cheese Fondu

A baked cheese fondue made with butter, flour, cream, cheese, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Fondu

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cheese base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and hot cream, mixing constantly until thick and smooth.

  3. Add the grated cheese, salt, and cayenne, stirring until combined.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg yolks.

Prepare the whites

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Preheat and butter a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Just before baking, gently fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes, until the fondue rises to twice its original height.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and make the fondue rise and turn light when baked.
Egg yolks
Enrich the cheese base and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce that holds the cheese.
Cheese
Provides the main flavor and, melted into the base, gives the fondue its richness.
Hot cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the base smooth and easy to fold.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the cheese mixture. Whites hold air only while whipped; overmixing deflates them, and a dense base stops the fondue from rising well in the oven.

“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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