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Dessert

Doughnuts.

A fried doughnut made with flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, spices, butter, sugar, sour milk, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Doughnuts.

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 ↓

Doughnuts.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and spices in a shallow pan.

  2. Work in butter with your fingertips.

  3. Add sugar, beaten egg, and sour milk. Stir thoroughly.

  4. Toss the mixture onto a board dusted with flour. Knead slightly.

  5. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness. Shape the dough.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry in hot fat until golden brown.

  2. Drain on brown paper.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and cream of tartar to make the dough rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner to the baking soda, helping the dough rise and stay tender.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the dough.
Egg
Binds the dough together and adds richness and structure.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderises the dough and adds flavour.

The step that matters

Fry in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderate heat gives a light, evenly cooked doughnut.

“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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