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Dessert

Eclairs

A French pastry made from choux dough filled with whipped cream and topped with chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the choux paste

  1. Beat and strain the eggs.

  2. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and water; heat until the butter melts.

  3. Sift in the flour, stirring continuously for 5-6 minutes until a stiff paste forms.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten eggs.

  5. Divide the mixture into pieces 1 inch wide, 4 inches long, and 3.5 inches thick; place on a baking tin.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until pale golden and risen.

  2. Spread a thin layer of chocolate icing on each eclair and return to a cool oven for a few minutes until set.

Fill and serve

  1. Whip the cream until stiff, open each eclair at the side, fill with whipped cream, and close.

  2. Serve cold.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Provide structure and moisture, and help the paste puff and set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the starch-based structure that holds the paste's shape as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness and melts into the water to form the paste.
Water
Turns to steam in the oven, helping the paste rise and form a hollow shell.
Cream
Adds moisture and a light, rich texture to the filling once whipped.

The step that matters

Drying the paste before adding the eggs. Stirring the flour into the hot liquid until a stiff paste forms cooks the starch and reduces moisture. If the paste stays too wet, the eggs cannot hold the structure and the eclairs may collapse or spread.

“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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