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Dessert

Nut Cakes

Nut cakes are fried dough cakes made with milk, butter, yeast, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Nut Cakes

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Nut Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine lukewarm milk and melted butter.

  2. Stir in enough flour to create a thick batter, then add yeast.

  3. Set the mixture in a warm place until it rises.

Make the dough

  1. Incorporate sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and salt into the mixture.

  2. Knead in enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  3. Allow the dough to rise again in a warm place.

Shape and fry

  1. Once risen, roll out the dough to 1 inch thick and cut with a glass.

  2. Let the cut pieces stand for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. Fry the cakes in hot lard until golden brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms gluten with liquid, giving the dough structure and enough body to hold its shape.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and lets the yeast work.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and contributes richness and flavor.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness, helping the cakes brown when fried.
Eggs
Add moisture and richness, and help bind the dough together.

The step that matters

Frying in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes soak up grease and cook unevenly. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady, moderate heat gives a golden crust with a fully cooked inside.

“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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