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Dessert

Lemon Puffs

Small lemon-flavored cakes baked in little pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Lemon Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puffs

  1. Combine one cup prepared flour, one-half cup powdered sugar, one tablespoonful butter, three eggs beaten stiff (strain yolks), a little salt, one grated lemon peel, and three tablespoonfuls milk, then mix well.

  2. Bake in little pans.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, combine one cup sugar, one-half cup butter, one egg, one lemon, all the juice, one-half rind grated, one teaspoonful nutmeg, three tablespoonfuls each of boiling water, cream, butter and sugar.

  2. Beat all hard for ten minutes.

  3. Add a spoonful at a time in the boiling water.

  4. Put in a pail over a tea-kettle.

  5. Stir constantly, and do not let boil, but heat hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

857Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
125 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 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
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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 Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Prepared flour
Provides the structure that holds the puffs together as they bake.
Eggs
Beaten stiff, they trap air and help the puffs rise and set.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, soft crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce its body.
Lemon
Its juice adds acidity and its grated peel adds bright aroma.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Heating the sauce. The sauce contains beaten eggs. Stirring constantly and keeping it below a boil gently thickens the eggs, while boiling can scramble them and leave the sauce grainy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk, butter, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, milk, butter, nutmeg, 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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