Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Egg Pap
Ingredients
Directions
Set a quart of water on a brisk fire.
Mix the flour with the egg yolks and a little cold water to form a batter.
When the water is ready to boil, stir in the batter and keep stirring until it thickens.
Remove from heat, add a pinch of salt, and pour into a basin to cool until warm like fresh milk.
If eggs are unavailable, add a small piece of butter with the salt and stir gently until mixed.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Wheaten flour
- Thickens the water into a smooth, pourable pap as it cooks.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, giving the pap a softer, creamier texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat in place of egg yolks when eggs are unavailable.
The step that matters
Stirring the batter into boiling water. Stirring constantly as the batter goes in keeps the flour dispersed, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.
“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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