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Buttermilk Puffs

A quick baked puff made from buttermilk batter with baking soda, salt, sugar, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Buttermilk Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Combine the buttermilk and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Taste the mixture and add more baking soda if it is not sweet.

  3. Stir in the salt, sugar, and enough flour to create a thick batter that drops from a spoon. Mix the batter quickly.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a buttered baking pan.

  2. Bake in a very hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for about 7 minutes, or 12 minutes if the buttermilk is not rich.

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.

  1. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas, which lifts the puffs.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to create carbon dioxide for rising and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the puffs together as they rise and set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown lightly in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Mix the batter quickly. Once the acidic buttermilk and baking soda combine, carbon dioxide forms right away and escapes over time. Delaying the mixing and baking lets the gas dissipate, so the puffs rise less.

“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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