Why it works: Beef and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Crullers and Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Render the suet
Cut the beef suet into small pieces and place in a pot that holds about 10 pounds.
Add 1 pint of water and heat for about 3 hours, stirring frequently after the first hour until the suet is rendered.
Drain the rendered suet through a coarse towel and let it cool in pans or jars.
Fry the crullers
Heat the suet until hot, then drop in the doughnut batter cut about ½ inch thick.
Fry for 5 to 8 minutes, checking one to ensure it is cooked through.
Drain the cooked doughnuts in a skimmer and place them in a colander.
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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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef suet
- Provides the frying fat, which carries heat evenly and gives the crullers a rich flavour.
- Doughnut batter
- Forms the crullers; its eggs add structure and set as they cook in the hot fat.
The step that matters
Keeping the suet at frying temperature. If the rendered suet is not hot enough when the batter goes in, the crullers absorb excess fat and turn greasy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Checking one cruller to confirm it is cooked through helps you catch either problem.
“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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