Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 76,993 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the batter
Scald the milk.
Pour the scalded milk over the flour and beat until smooth.
Whisk the eggs.
Add the whisked eggs to the flour and milk mixture when cool.
Stir in the salt.
Fry the puffs
Heat a saucepan of boiling lard.
Drop 1 teaspoon of the batter into the lard to make one puff.
Finish
When cool, sift sugar over the puffs.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + milktop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together76,993 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together104,138 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,465 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,855 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together89,462 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and milk share little aroma chemistry, yet 76,993 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Its starch and gluten give the batter the structure that holds each puff together while frying.
- Eggs
- Their proteins bind the batter and help the puffs set and hold their shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and milk solids that brown lightly and make the puffs tender.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into boiling lard. Hot fat sets the outside of the batter quickly, so the puff rises and crisps instead of soaking up grease. If the lard is not hot enough, the puffs turn heavy and greasy.
“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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