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Dessert

Molasses Doughnuts

A fried doughnut made with molasses, sour milk, and lard, flavored with cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,655 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Molasses Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg, molasses, and sour milk until well combined.

  2. Add the baking soda, salt, lard, and cinnamon, and mix until smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

  2. Remove and drain on paper towels before serving.

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. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Egg + cinnamontop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,058 recipes

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

Egg and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,058 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

Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure to the doughnuts as they set.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich flavor that browns in the hot oil.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds tenderness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the doughnuts rise.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy before the outside sets. Oil that is too hot browns 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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