Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Dough Nuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, rub the butter into the sugar and flour.
Beat the egg, then add the milk and mix with the flour and baking powder to form a dough.
Roll out the dough lightly and cut it into rings.
Fry and serve
Fry the rings in boiling oil until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels and serve with powdered sugar sprinkled over.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a richer texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that hydrates the flour to form a dough.
The step that matters
Fry the rings in boiling oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the rings absorb excess oil and become greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady heat gives an evenly cooked, golden result.
“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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