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Dessert

Raised Doughnuts

A yeast doughnut made with butter, sugar, milk, eggs, spices, and flour, then fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Combine butter, sugar, milk, yeast, salt, and 3 pints of flour in a large bowl to make a sponge.

  2. Cover and let the sponge rise overnight.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, add eggs and mixed spices, then enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  2. Let the dough rise again.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the dough out to a thick sheet.

  2. Cut the dough into shapes.

  3. Fry the shapes in hot lard.

  4. Test the oil by dropping a small piece of dough; it should rise to the top if ready.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Builds the gluten structure that holds the dough together and lets it rise.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the sponge and dough rise and gives a light, airy texture.
Eggs
Add structure, richness, and moisture to the stiff dough.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown when fried.
Milk
Provides moisture and helps form the soft dough.

The step that matters

Testing the frying oil. If the lard is too cool, the doughnuts absorb grease and turn heavy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks. The small test piece rising to the top shows the fat is ready.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. 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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