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Fondue

A cheese fondue made with eggs, butter, salt, and white pepper, cooked in a saucepan over boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese 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

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a bowl.

  2. Add the cheese and butter to the eggs.

  3. Place the mixture in a saucepan set over boiling water.

Cook and serve

  1. Stir continuously until smooth.

  2. Season with salt and white pepper.

  3. Pour the fondue onto a hot platter as soon as it melts.

  4. Cook for about 7 minutes, ensuring it boils but does not set.

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 + cheesetop 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. Egg + white peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

  5. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Proteins set as they heat, thickening the mixture into a creamy base.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the fondue smooth and rich in texture.
Cheese
Melts into the mixture, providing the main flavour and stretchy body.

The step that matters

Cook for about 7 minutes, ensuring it boils but does not set.. Egg proteins thicken with heat but curdle if overheated. Constant stirring and gentle heat keep the mixture smooth instead of grainy or scrambled.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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