Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ham Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and mix until the batter pulls away from the sides of the pan.
Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the ham, curry powder, cayenne, and salt if needed.
Fry and serve
Heat deep lard in a pan until boiling.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard, about the size of a hen's egg.
Fry until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.
Serve in a pyramid on cut paper or a folded napkin, garnished with parsley.
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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + hamtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,526 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + hamtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,516 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help the puffs rise and set with structure.
- Flour
- Forms the batter's structure, which sets into the puffs as they cook.
- Water
- Turns the flour into a batter and creates steam that helps the puffs swell.
- Ham
- Adds savoury meaty flavour throughout the batter.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs after removing from heat. Adding eggs to a batter that is too hot can scramble them, while beating them in off the heat lets them blend smoothly. A smooth, cohesive batter is needed for the puffs to rise and hold their shape when fried.
“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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