Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Popovers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Mix salt and flour, then sift into a bowl.
Make an indentation in the flour and drop in the unbeaten egg.
Gradually add the milk, stirring in widening circles from the middle.
If lumpy, beat for 1 minute with a hand mixer.
Bake
Pour into hot buttered custard cups or gem pans.
Bake in a very hot oven for the first 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature and continue baking for 30 to 35 minutes.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 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 + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Provides the structure that holds the steam-raised batter walls upright.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help the batter rise and set as it bakes.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that turns to steam and helps the batter puff.
- Melted butter
- Adds richness and helps the popovers release and brown in the hot cups.
The step that matters
Keep the oven very hot at the start. A very hot oven makes the batter steam quickly and climb before the structure sets. Opening the door or lowering the heat too early can stop the rise and leave popovers flat and dense.
“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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