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Dessert

Doughnuts No. 1

A sweet fried dough made with buttermilk, eggs, sugar, and flour, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and flour 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 ↓

Doughnuts No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Beat the white sugar and eggs together in a bowl.

  2. Add buttermilk, melted butter and lard, baking soda, and baking powder.

  3. Sift in enough flour to make a soft dough.

  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it out using just enough flour to prevent sticking.

Fry and finish

  1. Heat a kettle filled halfway with fat until boiling hot.

  2. Cut the dough into desired shapes and drop them into the hot fat.

  3. Fry until golden brown, turning 2 or 3 times for even cooking.

  4. Remove the doughnuts and place them on soft paper to absorb excess grease.

  5. Dust with powdered sugar while hot.

  6. Once completely cool, store in a stone jar.

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 + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as it sets in the fat.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that react with the baking soda for tenderness and rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the dough.
Baking powder
Provides additional lift so the doughnuts puff while frying.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning on the fried surface.
Butter and lard
Add fat that contributes tenderness and flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Frying at the right heat. The fat must be boiling hot before the dough goes in. If it is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly and cooking through.

Swap the nutmeg

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, buttermilk, egg, butter, 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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