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 ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix sour milk, sugar, eggs, and melted butter until combined.
Add baking soda and baking powder, mixing until the dough is soft enough to handle.
Fry
Heat lard in a frying pan.
Shape the dough into cakes and fry in the hot lard until golden brown.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda, releasing gas that lifts the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas for rising.
- Baking powder
- Provides additional leavening so the cakes rise and become light.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure as they set during frying.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender texture to the cakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cakes and helps the surface brown when fried.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes absorb excess fat and turn greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives an evenly cooked, golden crust.
“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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