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Whole- Wheat PuJfe

A whole-wheat batter of egg, milk and flour, with folded egg white, baked in iron cups until puffed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole- Wheat PuJfe

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Mix the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolk, milk, and whole-wheat flour together until smooth.

  2. Whip the egg white to stiff peaks and gently fold it into the batter.

Bake the popovers

  1. Pour the batter into iron cups and bake at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Prepare the batter the night before and refrigerate it.

  3. Before baking, beat the batter again for 5-10 minutes.

  4. Fold in the egg white before baking.

  5. Bake immediately after mixing.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 white
Whipped to stiff peaks, its trapped air expands in the oven to lift the popovers.
Whole-wheat flour
Provides the structure that holds the risen walls of the popovers together.
Whole milk
Supplies moisture, which turns to steam in the hot oven and helps the popovers rise.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps the batter blend smoothly with the milk and flour.

The step that matters

Bake immediately after mixing. Popovers rise from steam and the air in the whipped egg white. If the batter stands, that air and steam fade, so the batter should go into a hot oven right after the egg white is folded in.

“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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