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Eggless Doughnuts

Eggless doughnuts made with sour cream, sour milk, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and fried in hot lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Eggless Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix sour cream, sour milk, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until well combined.

  2. Heat lard in a deep pan over medium-high heat.

Fry and drain

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard and fry until golden brown.

  2. 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Sour cream
Adds richness and moisture, and its acidity helps tenderize the dough.
Sour milk
Supplies liquid and acidity that react with baking soda to lift the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior brown during frying.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour dairy's acidity to produce gas, making the doughnuts rise.

The step that matters

Frying the spoonfuls in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy before the centers cook. Holding the lard at medium-high heat keeps the surface browning quickly while the interior sets.

“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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