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Dessert

Raised Doughnuts

A yeast doughnut made with scalded milk, sugar, butter, eggs, spices, flour, and fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bread maker, combine the cooled scalded milk, sugar, butter, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and crumbled yeast.

  2. Add enough flour to knead the dough, about 2½ quarts.

  3. Turn the crank for three minutes, cover, and let the dough rise until light.

Shape and fry

  1. Once risen, transfer the dough to a molding board, cut it, and let it rise again in a warm place until light.

  2. Fry the doughnuts in hot lard.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Builds the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the risen gas.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and turn light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the dough hold its shape and color.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer, richer texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, and helps the doughnuts brown when fried.
Milk
Provides moisture and proteins that add softness and help browning.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas. Rising too little leaves dense doughnuts, while over-proofing weakens the gluten so the dough collapses and absorbs too much oil 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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