Name: Walnut Hill's Doughnuts
Ingredients: 1 cup sour cream or milk; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup butter; 4 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; Flour (as needed for rolling); Lard (for frying)

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Walnut Hill's Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Combine sour cream or milk, sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Beat the mixture well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll.

Shape and fry

Roll out the dough and cut it into diamond shapes.
Fry the doughnuts in hot lard 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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Provide structure and richness, binding the dough and helping it set when fried.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream to release gas, helping the doughnuts rise and lighten.
Sour cream or milk: Supplies moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the dough.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the dough.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and contributes to browning during frying.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll. Adding flour too quickly or too much makes the dough tough and dry, while too little leaves it sticky and hard to shape. Adding it gradually lets you stop at the right consistency.

“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.

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

Cinnamon Cake42 recipes

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Walnut Hill's Doughnuts