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Dessert

Plain Doughnuts

A doughnut made from light bread dough, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, cream, fruit, and citron, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Beat the egg very lightly.

  2. Work the butter and light brown sugar into the dough thoroughly.

  3. Let the dough rise lightly.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll or cut the dough into the desired shape.

  2. Fry the doughnuts in quite hot lard.

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Bread + eggtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Light bread dough
Forms the base of the doughnuts and gives a light, risen texture.
Flour
Provides structure as the dough is worked and shaped.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the surface brown when fried.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the dough.

The step that matters

Fry in quite hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, well-heated fat cooks the dough evenly and gives a light, crisp surface.

“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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