Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Profiterolles with Chocolate
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the paste
In a saucepan, melt the butter with salt, sugar, and milk over medium heat.
Once warm, add a few drops of orange or rose-flower water and enough flour to form a stiff paste.
Remove from heat and beat in the eggs until the mixture can easily drop from a spoon.
Shape and bake
Drop spoonfuls onto a floured surface and roll into balls the size of plums.
Place on a baking sheet, spaced apart, and bake in a slow oven at 300 °F (150 °C) until crisp and dry. Let the profiteroles cool.
Fill and serve
Make a small opening in the top of each and fill with frangipani cream flavored with almonds and lemon zest.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Flour
- Provides the starch and structure that holds the stiff paste together and lets the puffs hold their shape.
- Eggs
- Add moisture and structure, and their proteins set during baking to make the shells hollow and crisp.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the paste.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture that turns to steam in the oven, helping the puffs rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the shells brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs. The eggs must be added gradually until the paste just drops from a spoon. Too little egg gives a dense, unpuffed shell, and too much makes the paste too loose to hold its shape. Steam from the moisture in the paste is what makes the shells rise and hollow.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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