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
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the choux paste
Bring 1 cup of hot water to a boil in a saucepan.
Add ½ cup of butter to the boiling water.
Add 1 cup of flour and beat until a smooth paste forms.
Let the mixture cool.
Add 3 eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet, spacing them apart.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until puffed and golden.
Make the cream filling
Combine 1 pint of milk and 3 tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Mix 2 eggs and 2 teaspoons of flour with a little cold water in a bowl.
Add the egg-flour mixture to the boiling milk to thicken.
Flavor the cream filling to taste.
Assemble and serve
Split the cooled puffs and fill them with the cream.
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.
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).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Sets with the cooked paste to form the structure that holds the puffs and the thickened cream.
- Eggs
- Add structure and lift in the paste, and thicken the cream filling as they set with heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat that enriches the paste and softens its texture.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the cream filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream filling.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each, so the paste becomes smooth and glossy. Paste that is too hot can scramble the eggs, and under-beaten paste will not hold its shape or puff properly in the oven.
“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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