Name: Hef Plinsen — Yeast Fritters
Ingredients: 1 pound flour; 6 eggs; 1½ cups lukewarm milk; ¼ pound butter, melted; 1 teacup yeast or 1 ounce dry yeast, dissolved in warm milk; 1 tablespoon salt; sugar for serving; cinnamon for serving

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 ↓

Hef Plinsen — Yeast Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix flour, eggs, lukewarm milk, melted butter, yeast, and salt until well combined.
Cover the bowl and place it in a warm area to rise.

Fry and serve

Once risen, heat a frying pan and pour in the batter to fry thin pancakes.
Sprinkle the pancakes with sugar and cinnamon, and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 bulk of the batter, providing structure once cooked.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the pancakes hold together when fried.
Yeast: Produces gas during rising, making the batter light and airy.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, contributing flavor and tenderness to the pancakes.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and yeast, forming the batter's liquid base.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise before frying. Yeast needs time in a warm place to produce gas and develop flavor. Frying before the batter has risen leaves the pancakes dense and less airy.

“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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Hef Plinsen — Yeast Fritters