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Dessert

Fried Cakes

Fried cakes are batter made from flour, sugar, eggs, cream, sweet milk, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder, fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Fried Cakes

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and baking powder in a large bowl.

  2. Beat egg and egg yolk, then add cream and sweet milk.

  3. Mix wet ingredients into dry until well combined.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat lard in a frying pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of batter into hot lard and fry until golden brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the batter once it is set by heat.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the cakes hold together.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and tenderness through fat and emulsifying power.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the cakes rise and become light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the hot fat.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the cakes tender and rich.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly. Frying at a steady high heat seals the outside and lets the inside cook through and rise.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, cream, milk):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, cream, milk. 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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