Name: Rye Drops Fried Like Doughnuts
Ingredients: 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk; 3 tablespoons sugar; 1 tablespoon melted butter (if not using buttermilk); 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

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix sour milk or buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, and egg.
Add baking soda and cinnamon, then gradually mix in flour until a stiff batter forms.

Fry

Heat lard in a pan over medium‑high heat.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard and fry until golden brown on both 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).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as the doughnuts set in the fat.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Sour milk or buttermilk: Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Flour: Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the stiff batter together.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown in the hot fat.

The step that matters

Fry until golden brown on both sides. The lard must be hot enough to set the outside quickly; if it is too cool, the batter absorbs excess fat and the doughnuts turn greasy and heavy. Browning on both sides also ensures 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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Rye Drops Fried Like Doughnuts