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Trifles

Trifles are fried dough squares made from a stiff dough of flour, sugar, butter, egg, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Trifles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, melted butter, salt, baking powder, and egg.

  2. Add sweet milk gradually until the mixture forms a stiff dough.

  3. Roll out the dough into thin sheets and cut into pieces about 2 by 4 inches.

Shape and fry

  1. Make several cuts across each piece, stopping just before reaching the other edge.

  2. Using two knitting needles, lift every other strip and spread them apart.

  3. Fry each piece in hot fat until light brown, cooking one at a time.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and sturdy chew.
Baking powder
Releases gas as the dough heats, lifting the pieces so they puff and stay light.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure as it sets during frying.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and contributes flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and promotes browning in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Frying until light brown, one piece at a time. Fat must be hot enough to set the outside quickly; if it is too cool, the dough absorbs grease and turns heavy. Frying one piece at a time keeps the fat temperature steady so each piece browns evenly.

“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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