Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Snow Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix sugar, eggs, sour milk, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Add enough flour to form a dough that can be rolled into balls.
Fry and coat
Heat lard in a frying pan.
Roll the dough into balls and fry them in the hot lard until golden.
Dip the fried balls in egg white, then roll them in sugar before serving.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the balls.
- Sour milk
- Adds acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lighten the dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, helping the balls rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that supports the baking soda reaction and keeps the texture tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the outside brown when fried.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together for rolling.
The step that matters
Frying the dough balls in hot lard until golden. If the lard is not hot enough, the balls absorb grease and turn heavy and oily. Frying in hot fat sets the outside quickly while the inside cooks through and rises.
“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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