Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the eggs, sugar, and butter together.
Add the milk, spices, and flour.
Mix until the dough is stiff enough to roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
Shape and fry
Cut into squares and make 3 long incisions in each square.
Lift the squares by taking alternate strips between your fingers and thumbs.
Fry in hot lard 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 structure and richness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the doughnuts brown when fried.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives richer flavour.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the dough rises and lightens.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and softens the dough.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is too cool, the doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives an evenly cooked, golden result.
“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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