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 ↓
Dough-nuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Rub the butter and flour together until well combined.
Add the spices and sugar, then whisk the eggs.
Stir in the eggs, rose-water, yeast, and enough milk to form a soft dough.
Let the dough rise until light.
Shape and fry
Roll it out lightly and cut into diamonds or desired shapes.
Drop the shapes into a pot of boiling lard.
Sift sugar over the doughnuts after frying.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Cinnamon + milktop 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough once combined with liquid and eggs.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the dough together.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and turn light.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the dough and enriches its flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the doughnuts brown as they fry.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time to produce gas that expands the dough. Under-proofed dough stays dense and heavy, while the rise is what gives fried doughnuts their airy texture.
“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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