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Dessert

Raisin Puffs

A steamed puff made with eggs, butter, flour, sugar, raisins, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raisin Puffs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Beat in the eggs until well combined.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  5. Fold in the raisins.

Steam and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into cups and steam for 30 minutes.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during steaming.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and trapping air when creamed.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the puffs as the batter sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the puffs rise and turn light.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when creamed with butter.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of moisture throughout the puffs.

The step that matters

Stirring in the dry ingredients. Overmixing once the flour is added develops gluten, which makes the puffs tough and dense. Stir only until the flour disappears so the batter stays tender and light.

“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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