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 gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the choux paste
In a saucepan, combine cold water and flour until smooth.
Add butter and stir over medium heat until the mixture resembles a lump of putty.
Cool the mixture, then beat in the eggs until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a buttered baking sheet, spacing them apart.
Bake and cool
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake until they are hollow and firm.
Cool the puffs on brown paper to prevent sweating.
Make the filling
For the filling, combine milk, beaten eggs, flour or cornstarch, and sugar in a heatproof bowl.
Cook the mixture in a kettle of hot water, stirring until smooth.
Fill and serve
Once both the puffs and filling are cool, cut a small slit in the side of each puff and fill with 1 tablespoon of custard.
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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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 + 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).
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 starch and structure that hold the paste and puffs together.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the paste and contributing to its texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and help the paste puff and set as it bakes.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the custard so it sets smooth and creamy when cooked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard filling and adds flavor.
The step that matters
Drying the puffs and cooling before filling. Puffs must be baked until hollow and firm, then cooled on brown paper to prevent sweating. Filling warm or damp puffs can soften the shell and cause sogginess, while under-baked puffs collapse.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, 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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