Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the eggs and sugar until light.
Add the sweet milk and the baking soda dissolved in a small amount of boiling water.
Mix in the cream of tartar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste.
Make a soft dough that can be handled.
Fry
Roll out the dough, cut into shapes, and fry in boiling hot lard.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the dough.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that reacts with the baking soda to help the doughnuts rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the beaten eggs stay light.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together for shaping and frying.
The step that matters
Fry in boiling hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb more fat and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through.
“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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