Name: Chocolate Eclairs
Ingredients: Materials for Cream Cakes; ½ cup chocolate, finely grated; 1 cup sugar; ½ cup water

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather cool oven

Ingredients

Materials for Cream Cakes
½ cup chocolate, finely grated
1 cup sugar
½ cup water

Directions

The book says “a rather cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter for the eclairs as directed for Cream Cakes, placing it on a baking pan in strips 3 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.
Bake until golden and let cool.
Fill the eclairs with Pastry Cooks' Cream.
For the chocolate icing, boil 1 cup sugar and ½ cup water until it reaches the 'crack' stage.
Remove from heat and stir in ½ cup finely grated chocolate.
Brush the eclairs with the chocolate icing.
Dry the eclairs in a 300°F (150°C) oven until set, then serve.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).