Name: Chocolate Eclairs
Ingredients: mixture for Boston Cream Cakes; butter for greasing pans; chocolate icing

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chocolate Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

mixture for Boston Cream Cakes
butter for greasing pans
chocolate icing

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture as you would for Boston Cream Cakes.
Spread the mixture on buttered pans in oblong pieces, about 4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide, leaving 2 inches between each.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 25 minutes.
Once baked, ice with chocolate icing and let it cool.
Split each éclair on one side and fill with the same cream used for Boston Cream Cakes.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,466 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,543 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).