Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Boil 1/2 pint water with 3 tablespoons butter.
While boiling, stir in 1.5 cups flour.
Let the mixture cool.
Add half a teaspoon soda and 5 well-beaten eggs.
Drop spoonfuls onto buttered tins and bake for 20 minutes.
Make the custard
For the filling, boil 1 pint milk.
Beat together 1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup flour, and 2 eggs.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk, boil together for about 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat, add 1 teaspoon lemon and vanilla.
Let cool.
Assemble
Fill the baked puffs with the custard.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, and expand with steam to lift the puffs.
- Flour (in the method)
- Its starch sets on heating, giving the paste and custard their body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in the dough.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the custard set smoothly.
The step that matters
Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. If the flour paste is still very hot when the eggs go in, the eggs can partly cook and scramble, so the dough will not become smooth and glossy. Cooling it first lets the eggs blend in evenly and gives the puffs their lift in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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