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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine sugar, eggs, and butter.
Add sour milk and baking soda, mixing well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is manageable.
Flavor with nutmeg.
Shape and fry
Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.
Fry in hot oil 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 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).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as it sets in the frying oil.
- Sour milk
- Acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that leavens the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, helping the doughnuts rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderate heat cooks the inside evenly while the surface turns golden.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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