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Dessert

Raised Doughnuts

A doughnut made from a yeast-based dough, risen overnight and fried in hot lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sponge

  1. Combine scalded milk, butter, sugar, egg, and yeast in a bowl.

  2. Stir in enough flour to create a sponge-like consistency.

  3. Cover and let it stand overnight.

Shape and fry

  1. In the morning, mix the dough as you would for bread.

  2. Let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

  3. Roll out the dough and cut it into small pieces.

  4. Allow the pieces to rise near a warm source for a little while.

  5. Fry the doughnuts in hot lard until golden brown.

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.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

Milk
Provides moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the fry.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the dough and helps bind it.
Yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, making the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady heat gives a light, evenly cooked interior.

“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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