Why it works: Buckwheat and flour work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 660 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Blinis De Gruau
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
In a saucepan, combine 2 pounds of buckwheat flour with ½ cup warm water and ½ cup warm milk to form a starter. Let it rest for 3 hours.
An hour and a half before serving, add 1 pound of flour, ¼ teaspoon salt, 6 egg yolks, and 1 pound of sour cream to the starter. Mix well until smooth.
Gently fold in the 6 whipped egg whites.
Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes before cooking.
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.
-
Buckwheat + flourtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together660 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Buckwheat + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together328 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Swap the buckwheat
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, egg, cream):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Buckwheatthe original
- Cinnamonfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
Cornbread345 recipes
Bread Pudding336 recipes
Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes
Potato Bread124 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.