Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Hominy Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine cold boiled hominy, milk, egg, flour, salt, and baking powder to form a batter.
Fry and serve
Heat hot lard in a frying pan.
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.
Serve hot with butter and sugar.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 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).
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
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the hot fat.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the puffs rise and turn light.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the puffs together when fried.
- Milk
- Moistens the batter and helps it brown through gentle milk sugars.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into hot lard. The fat must be hot enough to set the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the puffs absorb grease, turn heavy and cook unevenly before browning.
“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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