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Dessert

Cokn Starch Puffs

A light, sweet puff made with eggs, sugar, butter, lemon juice, corn starch, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,927 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cokn Starch Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and set aside.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the lemon juice to the butter and sugar mixture.

  3. Incorporate the egg yolks into the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Sift the corn starch and baking powder together, then fold into the mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

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. Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites whipped to stiff peaks add lift, and yolks enrich the batter with fat and structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and tenderness to the puffs.
Sugar
Creamed with butter, it sweetens the puffs and helps them brown.
Corn starch
Provides the light, tender body of the puffs as it sets during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the puffs rise in the oven.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the puffs light. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates the foam, so the puffs bake up dense and flat instead of airy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, corn, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, corn, butter. 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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