Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Cream Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, beat together the sour cream, sour milk, sugar, and egg.
Add the baking soda, salt, and flavoring.
Mix in enough flour to form a dough that can be rolled out.
Fry
Heat lard in a deep pan and fry the doughnuts 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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk and flour 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
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, keeping the dough tender.
- Sour milk
- Adds acidity that reacts with baking soda to help the dough rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning during frying.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk acid to produce gas for rising.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled and shaped.
The step that matters
Frying the doughnuts. Lard must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly; if the oil is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy before they cook 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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