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Dessert

Jolly Boys

A fried dough made from rye meal, flour, Indian meal, cinnamon, sugar, molasses, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Jolly Boys

Why it works: Rye and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Jolly Boys

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix and sift together the rye meal, flour, Indian meal, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and sugar.

  2. Add the beaten egg, molasses, and enough cold water to make a thick batter.

Fry

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into a kettle of hot fat.

  2. Cook until 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.

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.

  1. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Rye + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Rye meal
Forms the main body of the dough and gives the fried jolly its dense, hearty texture.
Flour
Adds structure so the batter holds together as it cooks.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds richness to help it set around the frying fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, so the dough puffs and becomes lighter inside.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and deep color that helps the outside brown.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the batter soaks up oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives a crisp exterior and a fully cooked interior.

“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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