Why it works: Egg and flour 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 batter
Bring the water to a boil in a pot.
Stir in the flour and beat well until the batter pulls away from the sides of the pot.
Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the ham and seasonings, mixing well.
Fry and serve
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels and serve with white sauce or cabbage salad.
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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Egg + flourtop 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 + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,516 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg and flour 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
- Flour
- Starch and cooked gluten form the batter's structure, holding the puffs together as they fry.
- Eggs
- Proteins set the structure, and steam from the eggs helps the puffs rise and turn light.
- Ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour and a chewy bite to the batter.
- Curry powder
- Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavours the batter.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil. Dropping batter into hot oil sets the outside quickly so steam can puff the centre. If the oil is too cool, the batter soaks up fat, turns greasy, and stays dense.
“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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