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Dessert

Eclairs

A pastry made from a firm dough, baked, filled with cream, and topped with chocolate or frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Remove from the oven when the mixture is firm.

  2. When cool, beat in the eggs one at a time until light and smooth.

  3. Drop tablespoonfuls on buttered baking sheets, spaced apart.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  5. When cool, fill with cream and cover with chocolate or frosting.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the paste puff as steam expands in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour, and helps the dough brown.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the dough its structure as it bakes.
Water
Turns to steam in the hot oven, pushing the dough up to create a hollow interior.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling, contrasting with the crisp shell.

The step that matters

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually to a cooled paste lets each one blend in fully. Eggs added to a paste that is too hot can scramble, and a paste that is too stiff or too loose will not puff properly in the oven.

“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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