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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the egg and mix in the milk and sugar.
Add the flour and baking powder, mixing until combined.
Melt the butter and stir it into the mixture.
Knead the dough lightly, then roll it out to about ½ inch thick.
Shape, rise and fry
Cut into desired shapes and let rise until light.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the doughnut's shape.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the dough rise and turn light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches flavor.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. Oil that is hot enough seals the outside quickly so the dough cooks through without soaking up grease. Oil that is too cool makes greasy doughnuts, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the inside is cooked.
“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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