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 ↓
Wine Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine sweet milk and beaten eggs.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a thick batter.
Fry and serve
Heat lard in a frying pan until hot.
Drop spoonfuls of batter into the hot lard, shaking your hand to create shapes.
Fry until golden brown, then remove and drain on paper towels.
Serve warm with wine and sugar or sweet cream.
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.
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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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Flour
- Forms the thick batter structure that holds each cake together while it fries.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter.
- Hot lard
- Fries the batter quickly, creating a crisp, golden-brown surface and rich flavor.
The step that matters
Drop batter into hot lard. The lard must be hot before the batter goes in. Hot fat sets the outside quickly and browns it, while cold fat lets the batter soak up grease and turn heavy.
“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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