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Old-fashioned Yankee Doughnuts

Yeast-raised fried doughnuts, given as several household recipes from an American cookbook.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 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 Yankee Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Put the yeast in the milk and stir in flour.

  2. Let the mixture rise overnight.

Mix and rise the dough

  1. In the morning, add the sugar, lard, eggs and soda, and work in flour.

  2. Let the dough rise very light.

  3. Add nutmeg or cinnamon to suit taste.

  4. Add flour to make a stiff dough and let it rise.

Shape, fry and sugar

  1. When light, roll the dough out and cut out the doughnuts.

  2. Let them stand on the moulding board until light.

  3. Fry in hot lard.

  4. When hot, dip them in pulverized sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

966Calories
28 gProtein
40 gFat
123 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Tea + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light.
Eggs
Add richness and structure to the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and is used for frying.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown when fried.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and forms the dough's base.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before frying. Yeast needs time to build gas and structure; under-proofed doughnuts stay dense and may absorb more fat, while the dough must be light before cutting and frying.

“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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