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Dessert

Boston Cream Cakes

A biscuit base topped with custard, served cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boston Cream Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the choux paste

  1. Boil one pint of water.

  2. While boiling, add a quarter pound of butter and stir in three quarters pound of flour until free of lumps.

  3. Pour mixture to cool.

  4. When thoroughly cool, add ten eggs one at a time, beating hard.

  5. Butter some tin sheets and drop the mixture in small rounds.

  6. Bake in a hot oven for fifteen to twenty minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Mix one quarter pound of flour with a little of one quart milk.

  2. Bring milk to a boil, stir in the flour mixture.

  3. Let it boil hard about one minute.

  4. Beat four eggs well, stir into hot custard.

  5. Add half pound sugar, some salt, and lemon essence or oil rubbed on sugar.

Assemble and serve

  1. When biscuits are cold, make an incision in one side and spoon custard into it.

  2. Serve fresh, not warm.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

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
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Bind the paste and set the custard, giving structure and richness to both parts.
Flour
Starch that thickens the custard and gives the paste its structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the paste tenderness and flavour.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing creaminess and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and adds flavour balance.

The step that matters

Let the custard boil hard for one minute. Flour starch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and is cooked through; stopping early leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin custard.

“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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