Name: Old-fashioned Crullers
Ingredients: 3 spoonfuls sugar; 3 cups sugar; 2 tablespoonfuls cottolene; 3 teaspoonfuls of baking powder; 6 cups of flour; 3 eggs; five fingers; 6 eggs

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Crullers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Mix the dough.
Roll dough to an inch thick.
Cut into squares.
Cut each square into strips from bottom to near top edge, representing five fingers.
Slightly twist each strip, and bring all together at the end.

Fry and finish

Drop the dough into hot lard and fry until brown.
Sprinkle with sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

582Calories

19 gProtein

6 gFat

108 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49

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

By Fredonia, N.Y. Trinity parish guild, comp. [from old catalog]. 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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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.
Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its body.
Baking powder: Releases gas that lifts the dough for a lighter texture.
Cottolene: Fat that tenderizes the dough and adds richness.
Sugar: Sweetens the crullers and adds a sweet coating on top.

The step that matters

Frying until brown. The lard must be hot enough that the dough crisps and browns quickly. If it is too cool, the crullers soak up fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside darkens before the centre cooks through.

“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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Old-fashioned Crullers