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
Beat the eggs and mix in the sweet milk.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, and spices; mix well.
Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes.
Fry and coat
Heat lard in a pan until boiling.
Fry the cut shapes in the boiling lard until golden brown.
Dip the fried cakes in fine sugar while hot.
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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Add structure and richness to the dough as it sets when fried.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and softness so the dough can be rolled and cut.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the fried surface brown.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the dough so it reacts with the baking soda to lift it.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
The step that matters
Fry the cut shapes in the boiling lard until golden brown.. If the lard is not hot enough, the cakes absorb grease and turn heavy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through.
“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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