Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Puff-balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and fry
Pare the puff balls and cut them into slices.
Dust the slices with salt and pepper.
Heat oil in a large, shallow pan to cover the bottom.
Fry the slices until brown on one side, then turn and brown the other side.
Serve immediately on a heated dish.
Make A la Poulette
For A la Poulette, cut puff balls into dice and place in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon of butter per pint.
Cover and stew gently for 15 minutes.
Lift the lid, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper.
Beat the yolks of 3 eggs, add ½ cup cream and ½ cup milk, then pour into the hot mixture.
Shake until smoking hot, but do not allow to boil.
Serve in a heated vegetable dish with blocks of toast on top.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the cream and milk into a smooth, rich sauce as they set with gentle heat.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewed puff balls and sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smoother, fuller texture.
- Puff-balls
- Main body of the dish; they soften while stewing and brown when fried.
The step that matters
Shake until smoking hot, but do not allow to boil. Egg yolks in the sauce can curdle and turn grainy if overheated. Keeping it hot but below boiling lets the yolks thicken it smoothly.
“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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