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 choux dough
Melt the butter in hot water.
While boiling, beat in the flour.
Remove from the stove and let cool slightly.
Stir in the eggs one at a time without beating.
Bake the puffs
Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
Bake for about 25 minutes in a 350°F (175°C) oven.
Make the cream
For the cream, combine milk, egg, sugar, and flour in a saucepan.
Boil and flavor with lemon.
Fill and serve
When the puffs are done, open the side with a sharp knife 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
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the dough stay tender when baked.
- All-purpose flour
- Its starch thickens with the hot liquid and sets into the structure that holds the puffs.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and set as it bakes, and their moisture turns to steam that lifts the puffs.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid and richness for the cream filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the cream filling.
The step that matters
Stir in the eggs one at a time without beating. The eggs must blend evenly into the warm paste. Adding them too quickly or beating hard can break the dough and leave it too loose to hold its shape and puff 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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