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Cheese Eclaires

A pastry made from a dough of water, butter, flour, eggs, and cheese, baked into puffed éclairs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Eclaires

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. In a saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil.

  2. Stir in the flour quickly until it forms a ball that leaves the sides of the pan.

  3. Let the mixture cool, then beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Allow the mixture to sit in a warm place for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Bake the shells

  1. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto a buttered baking sheet, spaced 2 inches apart.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes until puffed and brown.

Make the cheese filling

  1. For the filling, melt the cheese with the milk, baking soda, mustard, white pepper, cayenne, nutmeg, and browned flour in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Once melted, stir in the beaten eggs and bake in a buttered dish until nearly solidified.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Starch gelatinises with the water and egg to form the structure of the choux paste.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, and their steam helps the paste puff while baking.
Grated cheese
Provides rich flavor and, with the eggs, sets into a firm filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the cheese filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the eggs. Eggs added to very hot paste can scramble and the dough will not blend smoothly. Adding them one at a time to a cooled paste lets the dough emulsify, so it stays smooth and can puff properly in the oven.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, cheese, milk, mustard, pepper):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, cheese, milk, mustard, pepper. 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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