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Doughnuts

A yeast‑leavened fried dough filled with raspberry jam and rolled in caster sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Doughnuts

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

  1. Warm the milk and dissolve the yeast in it.

  2. Stir in about 1 lb. of flour and the sugar, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until it drops.

  3. Once it drops, add the melted butter, egg, and a pinch of salt; mix well.

  4. Add enough flour to make a workable paste, then cover and let it prove in a warm place.

Shape and fill

  1. When well proved, turn out onto a floured board, divide into 2 oz. pieces, and flatten slightly with a rolling pin.

  2. Dampen the edges, place 1 spoonful of raspberry jam in the center, and fold the edges over to form balls.

  3. Pinch them together firmly and place on a floured cloth, covering with another cloth to prove again.

Fry and serve

  1. When light, heat lard in a pot and drop in the doughnuts, cooking for about 7 minutes on each side.

  2. Remove with a drainer onto clean kitchen paper, then roll in caster sugar and serve.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and lets it hold its risen shape.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its sugars feed the yeast and help browning.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a softer, richer texture.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough bind and hold its shape.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during proving and adds sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Proving the shaped doughnuts until light. Under-proved doughnuts stay dense and may burst or absorb more fat, while over-proved ones collapse in the hot lard. Gas from the yeast must fill the dough before frying.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, sugar, butter, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, butter, 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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