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Powhatan Crullers

A fried dough pastry flavored with nutmeg and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Powhatan Crullers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine nutmeg, baking powder, and 2 cups of flour.

  2. Add enough additional flour to form a stiff dough.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the dough thinly on a floured surface.

  2. Cut into desired shapes.

  3. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the dough its body and holds the crullers together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the crullers puff and lighten as they fry.
Grated nutmeg
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is too cool, the crullers absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady, moderately hot oil gives even color and a crisp, light texture.

“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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