Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the eggs and mix in the sweet milk.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, and spices; mix well.
Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes.
Fry and coat
Heat lard in a pan until boiling.
Fry the cut shapes in the boiling lard until golden brown.
While hot, dip the fried cakes in fine sugar.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Add structure and richness to the dough as they set during frying.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and softness, hydrating the dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the hot lard.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the dough.
The step that matters
Fry in lard that is boiling. Frying in hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it, so the cakes absorb less grease. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes soak up fat and turn heavy and greasy.
“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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