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 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 choux paste
Boil together 1 cup water and ½ cup butter.
While boiling, add 1 cup flour and stir until smooth, then cool.
Add 3 eggs one at a time, stirring until smooth.
Drop the mixture far apart on a baking sheet.
Bake
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.
Make the filling
For the filling, mix ½ cup sugar, 2 heaping teaspoons flour, and 1 egg.
Pour this mixture into 1 cup boiling milk and flavor to taste.
Fill and serve
When the puffs are cool, cut them open 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 + 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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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 starch structure that holds the puffs and the thick filling together.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and their steam helps the puffs rise and hollow out.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor in the paste.
- Water
- Turns to steam in the oven, helping the puffs rise and open up.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the filling and balances its richness.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time and stir until smooth, after the paste has cooled a little so the eggs do not scramble. The smooth batter stretches around the steam, so the puffs rise and form hollow centers.
“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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