Name: Florida Fried Cakes
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon shortening; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 cups sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 cups sour milk; Flour for rolling; 2 eggs

Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Florida Fried Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the shortening, baking soda, sugar, salt, sour milk, and eggs until well combined.
Gradually add flour until the dough is manageable.

Shape and fry

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown on both sides.

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.

Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

Flour: Builds the structure that holds the dough together and lets it be rolled and cut.
Sour milk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cakes rise and stay tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas that lifts the dough.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly during frying.
Shortening: Adds fat that keeps the cakes tender and adds richness.
Eggs: Add moisture and help bind the dough into a cohesive mass.

The step that matters

Fry in hot oil. If the oil is too cool, the cakes absorb excess oil and turn greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns and darkens before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderately hot oil gives a golden crust and a fully cooked interior.

“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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Florida Fried Cakes