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 ↓
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the puffs
Melt the butter in the hot water in a saucepan.
While boiling, beat in the flour until well combined.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Once cool, stir in the eggs one at a time without beating.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking sheets.
Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).
Make the cream filling
For the cream filling, boil the milk with the egg, sugar, and flour until thickened.
Flavor the filling with lemon extract.
Fill and serve
Once the puffs are baked, open the side of each and fill with the cream.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Butter
- Melts into the water to add richness and tenderness to the dough.
- All-purpose flour
- Gelatinizes with the liquid to form the starch structure that holds the puffs.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the puffs their structure and help them rise.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the cream filling, thickened by the flour and egg.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream filling and adds body to it.
The step that matters
Stir in the eggs one at a time without beating. Eggs must be fully absorbed into the cooled dough so it holds its shape. Beating or adding them to hot dough can cause the mixture to thin out, so the puffs may spread flat or fail to rise well in the oven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar. 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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