Skip to main content
Dessert

Pâte À Choux

A dough made from butter, lard, milk, flour, salt, and egg, fried into small puffed pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Pâte À Choux

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Heat butter, lard, and milk to boiling point.

  2. Add flour and salt, and stir vigorously.

  3. Remove from fire.

  4. Add egg unbeaten, and stir until well mixed; then cool.

Fry and drain

  1. Drop small pieces from tip of teaspoon into deep fat.

  2. Fry until brown and crisp.

  3. Drain on brown paper.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

899Calories
27 gProtein
39 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Starch that gelatinises when cooked, giving the paste body and a structure that holds its shape.
Egg
Adds protein that sets during cooking and moisture that turns to steam to help the pieces puff.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that cooks with the flour and fat to form the paste and adds moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and keeps the paste rich and smooth.
Lard
Adds fat that shortens the paste, giving a softer, more tender texture.

The step that matters

Fry in hot, deep fat. The fat must be hot enough to brown and crisp the pieces quickly. If it is too cool, the paste absorbs grease, turns heavy, and stays raw inside before the outside sets.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes