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Dessert

Crullers, with or Without Eggs

A fried dough pastry made with buttermilk, cream, sugar, baking soda, spices, salt, flour, and optionally yeast or egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crullers, with or Without Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine buttermilk, cream, sugar, baking soda, spices, and salt.

  2. If using, add a little yeast and mix well.

  3. Gradually add flour until the mixture can be molded.

  4. Let the dough rise before frying.

  5. Add a beaten egg and fry immediately without yeast.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the dough into twisted cakes.

  2. Heat lard in a frying pan and fry the crullers until golden brown.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk or sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the dough and adds a tangy flavor.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the crullers a tender, softer crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crullers brown well in the frying fat.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that leavens the dough.
Yeast
Optional leavening that produces gas during rising for a lighter, airier texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that gives the dough enough body to be shaped and hold its twists.

The step that matters

Frying the crullers. Lard must be hot enough for the dough to brown quickly and cook through. If the fat is too cool, the crullers absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy.

“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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