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Dessert

Emilie Sadilek

Fried Cakes are batter cakes made with eggs, sugar, milk, butter, flour, baking powder, salt, and mace, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Emilie Sadilek

97 fried cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat three eggs.

  2. Add one cup sugar, beat again.

  3. Add one cup sweet milk.

  4. Add four tablespoons melted butter.

  5. Add two cups flour sifted with three teaspoons baking powder.

  6. Add one-half teaspoon salt.

  7. Add one-half teaspoon mace.

  8. Beat thoroughly.

  9. Add enough flour to make dough stiff enough to handle.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out.

  2. Cut in forms.

  3. Fry in deep hot lard.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

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

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 as they are beaten in.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough so it can be rolled and cut.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the fried cakes rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown when fried.

The step that matters

Fry in deep hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes soak up grease and turn heavy and greasy. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, sealing in moisture and giving a light, golden crust.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, flour, egg. 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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