Name: Cream Puffs
Ingredients: 1 cup hot water; 1 cup butter; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 3 large eggs; 1 cup milk; 1 cup sugar; 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour; a pinch of salt

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

Combine 1 cup hot water and 1 cup butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Stir in 1 cup flour until mixture is smooth and resembles a paste.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Stir in 3 eggs one at a time until well mixed.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.
Do not open the oven door too soon to prevent falling.
Let cool before filling.

Make the filling

For the cream filling, cook together 1 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 beaten egg, 3 tablespoons flour, and a pinch of salt until thick.
Flavor as desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Eggs: Bind the dough and help the puffs rise and set as they bake.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the dough, helping it stay tender.
All-purpose flour: Forms the paste that gives the dough structure to hold its shape.
Milk: Provides the liquid and body of the cream filling.
Sugar: Sweetens the cream filling.