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 ↓
Boston Cream Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cakes
Boil one-fourth of a pound of butter in one tumbler of water.
Stir in one and a half tumblers of flour while boiling.
Take from the fire, let cool, add five eggs, then add half teaspoon of soda.
Drop by spoonfuls onto buttered tins and bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes.
Make the filling and fill the cakes
When done, make a hole in the side of the cakes and put in the following.
For the cream, combine two tumblers of milk, one and a half coffee cups of sugar, half coffee cup of flour, and two eggs.
Beat sugar, eggs, and flour together.
Add a little flavor and stir in the milk while boiling.
Let it boil until the consistency of 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| 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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Gives the boiled dough and the cream body, so they hold their shape and thicken.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, setting as the cakes bake and the cream thickens.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which contributes tenderness and richness to the cakes.
- Milk
- Provides liquid for the cream, which thickens into a custard as it boils.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cream a smooth, custard-like texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift the batter, helping the cakes rise lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Boiling the cream to custard consistency. Flour and egg thicken as they heat, but the mixture can scorch on the bottom or lump if heated unevenly. Stirring constantly while it boils lets the starch and egg set smoothly into a 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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