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Dessert

Eclairs

A sweet pastry made from a water, butter, flour, and egg dough, baked and iced with chocolate or vanilla frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Combine boiling water and butter in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Add flour and beat with a vegetable masher until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Beat in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, about 20 minutes.

Bake and finish

  1. Spread mixture on buttered sheets in oblong pieces, 4 inches long and 1.5 inches wide, spaced 2 inches apart.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 25 minutes.

  3. Once baked, ice with chocolate or vanilla frosting.

  4. When icing is cold, cut eclairs on one side and fill them.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + chocolatetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Flour + chocolatetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,994 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
Forms the structure that holds the puffed shells together once baked.
Eggs
Add structure and lift, helping the dough puff and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing tenderness and flavor to the shells.

The step that matters

Beat in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Adding eggs gradually lets each one blend fully into the starch paste, giving a smooth, glossy batter. Dumping them in together can leave the dough greasy or split, weakening the puff.

“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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