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Dessert

Potato Doughnuts

A fried doughnut made with mashed potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potato Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.

  2. Add the warm mashed potatoes and mix well.

  3. Incorporate the eggs one at a time until fully combined.

  4. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and spices, and beat thoroughly.

  5. Let the mixture stand for about 30 minutes to ripen.

  6. Add enough flour to roll out the dough, then cut into shapes.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry in deep fat until golden brown.

  2. Place on a wire rack to drain.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potato
Adds moisture and tenderness to the dough, keeping the doughnuts soft.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as they set during frying.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the doughnut shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the doughnuts rise and lighten.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a softer crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the surface brown during frying.

The step that matters

Fry in deep fat until golden brown. Oil that is too cool lets doughnuts soak up grease and turn heavy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks. Steady, moderate heat gives an even golden crust and a fully cooked interior.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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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