Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix sugar, fat, eggs, and sweet milk in a bowl.
Add baking soda and cream of tartar (or baking powder) to the mixture.
Roll the dough out to a thickness of half an inch.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan and fry the rolled dough 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.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 to the cakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acid that activates the baking soda so the cakes rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown when fried.
- Fat
- Tenderizes the dough and adds richness to the cakes.
The step that matters
Frying the rolled dough until golden brown. Frying at the right heat browns the outside while the inside cooks through. Oil that is too cool lets the cakes absorb grease and turn heavy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the center sets.
“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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