Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ham Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Bring the water to a boil in a pot.
Stir in the flour and mix well until the batter pulls away from the sides of the pot.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
Add the chopped ham and cayenne or curry, and salt if needed.
Fry
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into deep hot lard, about the size of a large egg.
Fry until golden brown and cooked through.
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.
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,058 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,516 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the starch structure of the batter that sets around the steam when fried.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and their proteins set to hold the puff together.
- Water
- Turns to steam in the hot fat, helping the puffs rise and go hollow.
- Ham
- Adds savory, salty flavor and meaty richness to the batter.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one fully blend into the batter, giving a smooth, pourable dough that puffs evenly. Adding them all at once can leave lumps or a batter too loose or too stiff to hold its shape.
“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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