Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Fried Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix sugar and butter until well combined.
Add eggs and beat vigorously.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture along with milk and vanilla, and mix well.
Take a spoonful of dough and knead lightly on a floured surface, adding more flour if necessary.
Fry and finish
Roll the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch, cut into shapes, and fry in deep hot fat.
Continue adding spoonfuls of dough to the rolled dough, kneading and rolling until all dough is used.
Fry the cakes, turning them with a wire egg beater to ensure even cooking.
Let the fried cakes cool before dusting with sugar, shaking them in a paper sack to avoid wasting sugar.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,781 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together during kneading and frying.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the dough and helping it set when fried.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that lifts the dough so the fried cakes puff and turn light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in the dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown as they fry.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the dough soft.
The step that matters
Frying the cakes in deep hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the cakes absorb excess oil and turn greasy and heavy instead of browning quickly. Keeping the fat hot seals the surface and lets the centre cook through as the baking powder lifts the dough.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, vanilla):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Clovefits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, vanilla. 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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