Name: Rye Drops Fried Like Doughnuts
Ingredients: 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon butter, melted (if buttermilk is not used); 1 egg; 1 teaspoon baking soda (saleratus); 1 teaspoon cinnamon; Flour, enough to make a stiff batter; Lard, for frying

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 ↓

Rye Drops Fried Like Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine sour milk or buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, egg, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Add flour gradually until a stiff batter forms.
Using a tablespoon, scoop the batter and drop it into hot lard.
Fry until golden brown on all sides.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).