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 ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Beat the eggs and mix them with the cold milk, then add to the butter and sugar mixture.
Sift the baking powder into the flour and gradually add it to the wet mixture until a soft dough forms.
Flour a board, turn the dough out, and roll it out to about ½ inch thick.
Cut the dough into circular shapes and twist each one.
Fry and finish
Heat fat in a frying pot until hot enough to brown a piece of bread quickly.
Fry the cakes for about 6-8 minutes until golden brown, turning them as needed.
Drain on brown paper to absorb excess fat, then roll in powdered sugar and let cool.
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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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).
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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).
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 as they set during frying.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the dough, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its body and structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the cakes brown during frying.
- Cold milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour into a soft dough.
The step that matters
Frying at the right heat. If the fat is too cool, the cakes absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks. Testing with bread helps gauge the temperature.
“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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