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Dessert

Mrs. M. A. Patterson's Doughnuts

A fried doughnut made with sugar, milk, egg, molasses, baking soda, cream of tartar, flour, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mrs. M. A. Patterson's Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine sugar, milk, egg, molasses, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and spices.

  2. Add flour gradually until the mixture forms a stiff dough.

  3. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot lard 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda to lift it.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas for lift.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that makes the dough stiff enough to cut and fry.

The step that matters

Fry in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the doughnuts absorb excess fat and turn greasy and heavy. If it is too hot, the outside browns before the centre cooks through. Steady heat gives a crisp, evenly cooked result.

“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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