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 ↓
Snow Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, beat the whole egg, sugar, and a pinch of salt.
Add the egg yolks and mix in enough flour to form a noodle-like dough.
Knead the dough well, then roll it out thin.
Shape and fry
Cut the rolled dough into squares and make three small cuts in the center of each square.
Fry the squares in hot fat until golden brown.
Finish and serve
Once done, sprinkle with sugar before serving.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour 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
- Whole egg and egg yolks
- Add richness and bind the dough so it holds together and stays tender when fried.
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure that gives the fried squares their body and chew.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and, sprinkled on top, adds a sweet finish to the fried squares.
The step that matters
Fry the squares in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, the squares absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady, hot fat gives a crisp, evenly cooked result.
“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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