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 gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the choux dough
In a saucepan, stir 1½ cups of flour into ½ pint of cold water until smooth.
Add 1 cup of butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly, then beat in 4 eggs until well combined.
Drop the dough in small round balls on a baking sheet, ensuring they do not touch.
Bake and cool the puffs
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until puffed and golden, then cool on paper to prevent sweating.
Make the custard filling
For the filling, mix ½ pint of milk, 2 beaten eggs, and ½ cup of corn starch until smooth.
Add 1 cup of sugar and cook in a double boiler, stirring until thickened.
Once cool, flavor with lemon.
Fill and serve
Cut open the puffs with a sharp knife and fill with the custard.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Flour
- Provides the starch and structure that hold the dough together while it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help the puffs rise and set as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and contributing to flavor.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the custard filling so it sets smooth and holds its shape.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps it thicken with the starch.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and flavor.
The step that matters
Drying the dough before baking. Beating in eggs must leave the dough smooth and glossy, since steam from its water and fat puffs the shell. Cooling slightly before adding eggs prevents scrambling and collapse, which keeps the puffs hollow.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, milk, corn, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, milk, corn, sugar. 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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