Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Common Cruller
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a large bowl, mix the sugar and cottolene until well combined.
Gradually add the water and yolkaline, stirring continuously.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour.
Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
Add hartshorn and vanilla flavor, mixing until a dough forms.
Shape and fry
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
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.
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the dough's shape while it cooks.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the crisp crust its golden browning.
- Cottolene or vegetable shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and keeps the crumb from becoming tough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release carbon dioxide, helping the dough rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Supplies acid that reacts with the baking soda to produce gas for lift.
- Hartshorn
- Ammonium carbonate releases gas when heated, lifting the dough as it fries.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is too cool, the dough absorbs excess oil and turns greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks and the leavening has time to set the crumb.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillathe original
- Strawberryfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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