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Dessert

Old-fashioned Doughnuts

A yeast-based doughnut made with powdered sugar, spices, and fried in lard, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Old-fashioned Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. The evening before, prepare a sponge with 1 quart of warm water.

  2. Beat 2 eggs and add 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of butter. Mix well, then add 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

  3. Stir in 1 cup of warm milk gently. Gradually add the creamed mixture and beat thoroughly.

  4. Sift 1 teaspoon of baking soda into about 4 cups of slightly warm flour. Mix the flour in lightly and knead well.

  5. Place the dough in a warm spot to rise overnight.

Fry and serve

  1. When ready to cut, heat 2 pounds of lard in a pan. Test the lard with a bit of dough; if it rises and turns brown, it's ready.

  2. Cut the dough into shapes and fry until golden brown.

  3. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 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. Cinnamon + milktop 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the dough, helping it hold its shape while frying.
Baking soda
Reacts to lift the dough and give the doughnuts a lighter texture.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it rises and fries.
Lard
Heats evenly for frying and browns the outside of the doughnuts.

The step that matters

Testing the lard temperature. If the lard is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks. A test piece of dough shows whether the fat is ready.

“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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