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 ↓
Cream Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the choux
In a saucepan, combine 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of hot water, and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, stir in 2 cups of flour until well combined.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Stir in 6 eggs, one at a time, without beating.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking sheets.
Bake and fill
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 25 minutes.
For the cream, boil 1 pint of milk with 2 eggs, 6 tablespoons of sugar, and 4 tablespoons of flour.
Flavor the cream with lemon.
Once the puffs are done, open the side with a knife and fill with the cream.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Butter
- Melts into the boiling water to provide fat and richness in the dough.
- All-purpose flour
- Gelatinizes with the hot liquid and sets the dough so the puffs hold their shape.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and help the baked puffs rise and set hollow.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid base of the cream and adds richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances its flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs. Eggs must be added gradually, one at a time, and the dough cooled slightly first. If the dough is too hot, the eggs cook instead of blending, and the dough will not hold the steam needed for the puffs to rise and form a hollow centre.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, cream, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, cream, sugar. 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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