Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix sugar and melted lard together.
Add sour cream, sour milk, baking soda, egg, salt, and nutmeg or cinnamon.
Gradually add flour until the dough is rollable.
Fry and coat
Drop spoonfuls of dough into hot lard and fry until golden.
Roll in sugar immediately after frying.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and a sugar coating that browns slightly against the warm doughnut.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the dough a tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour dairy to produce gas, helping the doughnuts rise and lighten.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Sour milk
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.
- Lard
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and serves as the hot frying medium.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls of dough into hot lard and fry until golden.. If the lard is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg, milk, flour):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Jalapenofits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg, milk, 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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