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 ↓
Doughnuts
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, beat the eggs well.
Add sugar, sweet milk, cream of tartar, baking soda, and melted butter. Mix well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft and can be rolled out.
Shape and fry
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Fry in hot oil until golden brown.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with baking soda to produce gas that helps the doughnuts rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to leaven the dough.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the doughnuts brown when fried.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together for rolling and frying.
The step that matters
Fry in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is too cool, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady oil temperature gives even cooking and a light texture.
“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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