Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Beat the eggs and mix them with sweet milk.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, and spices, then mix well.
Roll out the dough.
Fry and finish
Cut the dough into shapes.
Heat lard in a pan until boiling.
Fry the shapes until golden brown.
While hot, dip the fried cakes in fine sugar.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the frying fat.
- Sweet milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the dough moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the hot fat.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lightens the dough.
- Lard
- Frying fat that transfers heat to the shapes and gives them a golden crust.
The step that matters
Fry the shapes until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb excess fat and turn greasy, while overly hot fat can brown the outside before the centre cooks 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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