Why it works: Milk and flour 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
In a bowl, mix sweet milk, beaten eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt until smooth.
Heat enough lard in a pan to cover the bottom.
Fry and serve
Once the lard is hot, pour the batter through a funnel into the lard, starting from the center and spiraling outward.
Fry until light brown, then serve hot with tart jelly.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the hot fat.
- Flour
- Forms the thin batter's structure, which sets into crisp, tender strands when fried.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes puff and stay light.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and thins the batter for pouring.
- Lard
- Heat-transfer fat that fries the batter and drives browning and crispness.
The step that matters
Pour the batter steadily through the funnel into hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of setting quickly into crisp strands. Pouring in a steady spiral keeps the batter in even, thin lines so it cooks through and browns evenly.
“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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