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 ↓
Doughnuts a Potato Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine hot mashed potatoes and butter until smooth.
Stir in sugar, then add eggs and sweet milk, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine baking powder, flour, salt, and spices.
Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until soft.
Fry
Fry in hot oil 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.
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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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Potato + walnuttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together342 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Hot mashed potatoes
- Adds moisture and body, giving the dough a soft, tender texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the dough so the doughnuts rise and stay light.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the dough together while it fries.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fried surface brown.
The step that matters
Frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Shallotfits about as well
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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