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 ↓
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
1 cup hot water, 1 cup butter. Boil these together, then stir in while boiling 1 cup flour. Let mixture cool and then add 3 eggs not beaten. Mix well and drop on buttered tins.
CREAM FOR PUFFS:— 2 cups milk, \ cup sugar, 1 egg, 2 tbs. flour. Stir all together and stir into milk while boiling. Flavor with vanilla. Add pinch salt. When cakes are cool open on side and fill. Mrs. Arthur Mather.
MOLASSES SNAPS. 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup molasses, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tbs. vinegar, (vinegar on soda.) Mix stiff with flour, roll thin and bake in hot oven. Mrs. Charles H. Burwell.
POUND COOKIES. 1 lb. flour, \ lb. butter, \ lb. sugar, yolks of 3 eggs, 3 tbs. jjream, flavoring. Mix all together at once. Roll out very thin. Bake a small sheet of dough and crumple up with *;ugar to sprinkle on top of cookies before baking them.
Mrs. Oscar Lund.
CHOCOLATE DROPS. 1 cup light brown sugar, J cup melted butter, 2 sq. chocolate (melted), % cup sweet milk, 1 cup chopped nuts, 1 egg, § tsp. soda, 1\ cups flour, 1 tsp. vanilla. Drop with tsp. on buttered tins. Frost with chocolate icing.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 7 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 |
| Molasses | 1 tbsp (20g) | 58 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Nuts | 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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, sugar, molasses, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, sugar, molasses, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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