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Dessert

Raisin Puffs

A steamed pastry made with egg, sugar, milk, raisins, walnuts, flour, baking powder, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl, then mix in the sugar and sweet milk.

  2. Add the chopped raisins and walnuts, then stir in the flour and baking powder.

  3. Fold in the melted butter.

Steam

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered cups and steam for 30 minutes.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during steaming.
Flour
Forms the body of the puffs, setting around the air bubbles as they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the puffs rise and turn light.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavor.
Sweet milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the puffs.

The step that matters

Pour the mixture into buttered cups and steam for 30 minutes. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so the batter should go into the cups and into the steamer promptly. Keeping the steam steady helps the puffs rise and set without collapsing.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, raisin, flour, 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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