Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Jolly Boys
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Beat the egg and add it to the dry mixture.
Stir in enough milk to make a drop batter.
Quickly mix in the melted butter.
Fry
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into smoking hot lard and fry until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds richness and structure to the fried dough.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the dough puff and lighten as it fries.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the batter together while it fries.
- Yellow cornmeal
- Adds a slightly gritty texture and toasty flavor to the fried dough.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Drop spoonfuls into smoking hot lard. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisping. Hot fat sets the outside quickly, so the dough browns evenly and stays light inside.
“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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