Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Mix the batter
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and then add the milk.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until soft.
Heat and fry
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and heat through before adding the hot lard.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard and fry 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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Builds the main structure of the cakes as its starch sets during cooking.
- Eggs
- Add structure and binding, helping the batter hold together while it cooks.
- Milk
- Adds moisture, so the batter is soft rather than dry.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cakes rise and turn light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during frying.
- Lard
- Fat that fries the outside to a crisp golden crust and carries flavour.
The step that matters
Drop the batter into the hot lard. If the lard is too cool, the cakes soak up grease and turn heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through.
“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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