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Dessert

Raisin Puffs

A steamed pastry with raisins, served with a sweet milk and sugar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix flour, milk, raisins, butter, eggs, sugar, and baking powder until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into eight cups and steam for 30 minutes.

Make the sauce

  1. Scald 6 tablespoons of milk in a saucepan.

  2. Add 1½ cups powdered sugar mixed with 3 egg yolks to the scalded milk and stir until thick.

  3. Fold in beaten egg whites until the sauce foams.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the puffs as the batter sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the puffs rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they heat and give it a smooth, rich body.
Milk
Provides moisture to the batter and forms the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until thick. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the sauce gets too hot they can curdle and turn grainy. Keep the heat gentle and keep stirring so the yolks set smoothly.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, sauce):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, sauce. 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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