Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.
In a bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, melted lard, and sour milk.
Add the baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a very soft dough.
Shape and fry
Roll out the dough and cut into doughnut 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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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 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).
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Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in frying.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda, helping the doughnuts rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lightens the dough.
- Baking powder
- Adds extra leavening so the doughnuts puff during frying.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together once it is shaped.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the golden brown color develop in frying.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a very soft dough. Adding flour gradually lets you stop once the dough is soft but workable. Too much flour makes the doughnuts dense and tough, while too little leaves the dough too sticky to shape.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, 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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