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Dessert

Corn Puffs.

A batter of egg yolk, milk, flour, cornmeal, sugar, and egg white baked into puffs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Puffs.

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolk with the rich milk.

  2. Add the salt, flour, corn meal, and sugar; mix well.

  3. Chill the batter for an hour until very cold.

  4. Beat the batter vigorously for 5-10 minutes until full of air bubbles.

  5. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into heated irons and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30-40 minutes.

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.

  1. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Egg white
Stiffly beaten whites trap air, giving the puffs their light, lifted structure.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the batter together.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the puffs once baked.
Rich milk
Supplies moisture and tenderness to the batter.
Fine yellow corn meal
Adds corn flavor and a slightly firmer, grainy texture.

The step that matters

Beating the batter until full of air bubbles. Vigorous beating incorporates air that expands in the hot iron, so under-beating leaves the puffs dense. Chilling first keeps the batter cold so the trapped air and steam lift the puffs rather than the batter spreading out.

“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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