Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs and sweet milk, mixing well.
Stir in the baking soda and cream of tartar (or baking powder).
Shape and fry
Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½ inch.
Cut into desired shapes and fry in hot lard until golden brown.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown during frying.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderising the crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, binding the dough together.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the cakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda so the dough rises.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes absorb excess fat and turn greasy before the outside sets and browns. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderate heat gives a golden crust and a 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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