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Doughnuts II

A fried doughnut made with flour, butter, sugar, spices, sour milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Doughnuts II

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a shallow pan, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, and spices.

  2. Work in the butter with your fingertips.

  3. Add sugar, beaten egg, and sour milk; stir thoroughly.

  4. Toss the mixture onto a board dusted with flour and knead slightly, adding more flour if necessary.

  5. Pat and roll out to ¼ inch thickness, then shape the doughnuts.

Fry and drain

  1. Fry in hot fat until golden brown, turning once.

  2. Drain on paper towels.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it is kneaded and fried.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda to leaven the dough.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity for the leavening reaction and moisture for the dough.
Egg
Adds binding and richness that help hold the dough together.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat until golden brown. If the fat is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre 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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Raised 110Plain 25Potato 18German 17Isle of Wight 16Sour Milk 14 See all 168 →

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