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Dessert

Funnel Cakes

Thin batter fried into a funnel shape and drained on paper towels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Funnel Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, eggs, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Add sweet milk gradually until the batter is thin enough to run through a funnel.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat hot lard in a deep pan.

  2. Pour the batter through the funnel into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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 main structure of the batter once it sets in hot fat.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter hold its shape while frying.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lightens the batter and helps it puff as it fries.
Sweet milk
Thins the batter so it flows through the funnel and adds moisture.
Lard
Fries the batter quickly, creating a crisp, golden-brown surface.

The step that matters

Pour the batter through the funnel into the hot lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the batter immediately. If the fat is too cool, the batter absorbs oil and turns greasy and dense instead of crisp and light.

“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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