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
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
Rub in the butter and sugar until well combined.
Beat the egg with the milk and pour into the center of the mixture.
Mix into a paste and turn out onto a floured surface.
Knead lightly and form into small balls with a hole in the center.
Fry
Heat oil or fat until blue steam rises.
Drop the dough balls into the hot fat and fry for 5 minutes until golden brown.
Finish and serve
Remove and place on kitchen paper, then sprinkle with sugar and serve 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.
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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Flour + buttertop 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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Flour + sugartop 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it fries.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and turn light.
- Butter
- Adds fat that shortens the crumb, giving a tender texture.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that brings the flour and egg into a workable dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the outside brown in the fat.
The step that matters
Keep the fat hot before frying. If the fat is too cool, the dough absorbs oil and becomes greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks. Heating until blue steam rises signals the right heat.
“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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