Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Desseet Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the sweet milk and flour until smooth.
Gently fold in the beaten egg yolks.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the mixture.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into cups and bake until puffed and golden.
Serve with a liquid sauce of your choice.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Whites beaten to stiff peaks trap air, lifting the batter so it puffs as it bakes.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and protein that set into the structure of the puffed cake.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, and help bind the batter while adding colour and flavour.
The step that matters
Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the stiff whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the batter dense, so the cake will not puff well in the oven.
“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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