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Ham Puffs

A fried batter made with flour, eggs, water, ham, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ham Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a pot.

  2. Stir in 2 cups of flour and mix well until the batter pulls away from the sides.

  3. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Add the ham, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper, and mix well.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  2. Drain on paper towels and serve with white sauce or cabbage salad.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + hamtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Forms the starch base that gives the batter body and structure once cooked.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the puffs hold their shape and set when fried.
Ham
Adds savoury flavour and a meaty texture throughout each puff.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour until the batter pulls away from the sides. Cooking the flour paste until it pulls away from the sides gelatinises its starch and drives off excess moisture. A stiff, well-cooked base lets the eggs bind properly, so the puffs hold their shape in the hot oil instead of spreading or going 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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