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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk.
Add 2½ cups of flour and mix well.
Cover and place in a warm area to rise for about 1 hour.
Once risen, add ½ cup sugar, butter, egg, salt, and 3 cups of flour.
Knead lightly and let rise until doubled in size.
Shape and fry
Turn the dough onto a floured board and roll to ⅓ inch thick.
Cut with a small doughnut cutter and cover to let rise for 45 minutes.
Drop the doughnuts into deep, hot fat with the side that was facing up on the board.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a light, airy crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the dough.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and some browning to the crust.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and adds richness.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape and colour.
The step that matters
Drop the doughnuts into deep, hot fat with the side that was facing up on the board.. Fat that is too cool lets doughnuts absorb grease and cook slowly, while fat that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks. Keeping the risen side up as it goes in helps the shape hold.
“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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