Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pop-overs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
Beat the egg yolks until light.
Stir in the milk and flour mixture.
Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
Bake and serve
Bake immediately in greased gem or muffin tins at 400°F (200°C).
Serve immediately.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk 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
- Hecker's prepared flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the batter its structure as it sets.
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, and whipped whites trap air and steam that lift the popovers.
- Rich milk
- Supplies the liquid that turns to steam in the oven and adds richness and tenderness.
The step that matters
Bake immediately. The batter rises mainly from steam expanding in a very hot oven. If it waits before baking, the air and steam escape and the popovers bake flat instead of puffing.
“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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