Name: Pate a Chou for Soups
Ingredients: two ounces of sifted flour; a gill of milk; two eggs

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pate a Chou for Soups

Ingredients

two ounces of sifted flour
a gill of milk
two eggs

Directions

Make the paste

Put a gill of milk and an ounce of butter into a saucepan over the fire.
When it comes to the boiling point, add two ounces of sifted flour.
Stir with a wooden spoon until thick and smooth.
Add two eggs, one at a time, beating briskly.
Remove from the fire and spread out thin.

Cut and fry

Cut in pieces the size of a small bean.
Put them in a sieve, dredge with flour, and shake it well.
Fry in boiling fat until a nice brown.

Serve

Add to the soup after it is in the tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

682Calories

27 gProtein

14 gFat

108 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78

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

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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: Starch that sets with heat to give the paste body and structure.
Eggs: Add moisture and proteins that set the paste and help it puff.
Milk: Provides the liquid that gelatinises the flour and keeps the paste moist.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs. Eggs must be beaten in one at a time so the paste stays smooth and emulsified. Adding them too fast can make it greasy or runny, so it will not hold its shape or puff when fried.

“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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Pate a Chou for Soups