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Dessert

Raised Doughnuts

A sweet doughnut made from mashed potatoes, yeast, milk, and spices, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Boil the potatoes until tender.

  3. Mash the boiled potatoes finely.

  4. Pour boiling water over the mashed potatoes until it reaches a gruel-like consistency.

  5. Let the mixture cool.

Make the dough

  1. Add the yeast cake and a little flour.

  2. Let the dough rise until light.

  3. Stir in the sweet milk, sugar, lard, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  4. Add flour until the mixture is stiff.

  5. Let the dough rise again.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the dough.

Shape and fry the doughnuts

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured surface.

  2. Roll the dough to ½ inch thick.

  3. Cut the dough into long strips, 2 inches wide.

  4. Cut the strips diagonally into 3-inch pieces.

  5. Set the pieces in a warm place to rise until light.

  6. Fry the doughnuts until golden brown, checking one to ensure it cooks through.

Make and fry the filled biscuits

  1. Roll out part of the dough.

  2. Cut the rolled dough into small biscuits.

  3. Let the biscuits rise.

  4. Place raisins rolled in cinnamon in the center of each biscuit.

  5. Wet the edges of the biscuits.

  6. Seal the biscuits.

  7. Fry the filled biscuits until golden 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.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Add moisture and body, giving the dough a soft, tender crumb.
Yeast cake
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning during frying.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a rich mouthfeel.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to add extra lift and lightness.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the dough brown when fried.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown with a test piece. Oil that is too cool soaks into the dough, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks. Checking one doughnut confirms the inside is cooked 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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