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Dessert

Molasses Doughnuts

Molasses doughnuts are fried dough pieces flavored with molasses, cinnamon, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Molasses Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, cold water, ground cinnamon, salt, and melted lard. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

  2. Gradually add flour until the dough is manageable.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark colour and a rich, deep flavour to the dough.
Melted lard
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough so it can be rolled and shaped.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice flavour to the dough.

The step that matters

Frying in hot oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, doughnuts absorb excess oil and turn greasy; if it is too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through. Steady oil temperature gives even cooking and a light, crisp exterior.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Allspicefits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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