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 ↓
Cream Cakes
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 batter
Boil the water and butter together.
Stir in the flavoring.
Remove from heat and add the well-beaten eggs.
Add 1 teaspoon of water.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into a pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Starch that sets with heat, giving the cakes their structure.
- Eggs
- Set with heat and add structure and richness to the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and melts into the boiling water.
- Water
- Boiled with butter, it turns to steam in the oven, helping the cakes puff.
The step that matters
Remove from heat and add the well-beaten eggs.. Eggs added to a mixture that is still very hot can cook and curdle instead of blending smoothly. Removing the pan from heat first lets the mixture cool slightly, so the eggs combine evenly and set in the oven.
“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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