Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, beat together the powdered sugar and eggs until well combined.
Add the melted butter and a pinch of powdered cinnamon or nutmeg.
Stir in the sour milk and dissolved baking soda.
Mix in enough sifted flour to form a dough that can be rolled out.
Fry and serve
Fry the dough in hot oil until golden brown.
Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 dough and add richness and structure.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that leavens the cakes.
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure so it can be rolled out and fried.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown when fried.
The step that matters
Fry the dough in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the cakes absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy. Oil that is too hot browns the outside before the inside cooks through, so the dough should be fried at a steady, moderately hot temperature.
“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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