Why it works: Nutmeg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Delicious Doughnuts or Crullers
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, and melted Snowdrift until creamy.
Add the salt and nutmeg, then stir in the milk.
Gradually add flour that has been sifted with the baking powder until the dough can be rolled out.
Flour your work surface and handle the dough as little as possible.
Fry and serve
Fry in deep, hot Snowdrift 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.
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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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 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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Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,685 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the fried dough, helping it puff and lighten.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and gives the dough its soft, tender texture.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fried surface brown.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together when rolled and fried.
The step that matters
Handle the dough as little as possible. Overworking develops gluten in the flour, making the doughnuts tough and dense rather than tender. Light handling keeps the texture soft.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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