Name: Pop Overs
Ingredients: 1 pint flour; ½ teaspoon salt; 3 eggs; 1 pint milk

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pop Overs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pint flour
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 pint milk

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Sift together the flour and salt.
Beat the eggs until just mixed, then add the milk.
Stir the egg mixture into the flour to make a smooth batter.
Fill gem pans nearly full with the batter.

Bake

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes, then increase the heat to 400°F (200°C).
Bake for nearly an hour until they swell to twice their size and are hollow in the center.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the risen walls of the popovers together.
Eggs: Set during baking to form the walls and help the popovers rise and hold their shape.
Milk: Adds moisture, which turns to steam in the oven and helps the batter puff.

The step that matters

Baking at the starting temperature. The batter rises mainly because liquid in it turns to steam in a very hot oven, pushing the walls outward before the egg and flour structure sets. Starting at 350°F and then raising the heat to 400°F keeps that steam pushing the batter up. Lower heat can leave the popovers flat and 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.