Name: Ceullers and Doughnuts
Ingredients: 1 pound butter; ½ pound sugar; 2 pounds flour

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ceullers and Doughnuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pound butter
½ pound sugar
2 pounds flour

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Warm the flour slightly and mix it gradually with the butter and sugar using your hands.
Knead the mixture well.

Shape and bake

On a floured surface, press the dough into sheets ½ inch thick; do not roll it out.
Cut into desired shapes, prick or stamp a pattern on top, and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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

Butter: Provides fat that makes the dough rich and tender and carries flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown in the oven.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the shaped dough together while it bakes.

The step that matters

Pressing the dough into sheets instead of rolling it out. Rolling works the dough further and can develop gluten, which makes the baked result tougher. Gently pressing it to an even ½ inch thickness keeps the texture tender and the thickness consistent so the pieces bake evenly.

“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.