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Plain Raised Doughnuts

Plain raised doughnuts made from a yeast‑leavened dough fried in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Plain Raised Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a thin batter and set aside to rise until foamy.

  3. Add the beaten egg, sugar, salt, melted butter, and melted lard.

  4. Stir in enough flour to knead into a stiff dough.

  5. Place the dough in a greased dish to rise until soft to the touch.

Shape and fry

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured board, cut into lengths, and twist.

  2. Let the doughnuts rise for 45 minutes (longer if the weather is cold).

  3. Fry in lard, placing them bottom side up; they should float if done correctly.

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

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Builds the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough hold its shape and texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and carries the frying heat.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast, forming the dough and adding softness.

The step that matters

Frying the doughnuts. Oil or lard must be hot enough to seal the surface quickly. If it is too cool, the doughnuts absorb grease and turn heavy; if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks.

“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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