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Fondue

A melted cheese and egg mixture served for dipping bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fondue

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondue

  1. In a pot, melt butter over low heat.

  2. Add grated cheese and stir until melted.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs.

  4. Gradually mix the eggs into the cheese until well combined.

Serve

  1. Serve warm, allowing each person to dip bread into the fondue.

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

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grated cheese
Melts into a smooth, creamy base that gives the fondue its body and flavour.
Egg
Thickens the cheese mixture and helps bind it into a cohesive, creamy sauce.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the cheese melt smoothly and adds richness.

The step that matters

Mixing the eggs into the cheese. Eggs curdle and turn grainy when they are heated too quickly. Adding the beaten egg gradually, while stirring, lets it blend in evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

“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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