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Doughnuts

A fried sweet dough made with sugar, eggs, butter, milk, baking powder, nutmeg, and ginger.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Doughnuts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, eggs, butter, and sweet milk until well combined.

  2. Add baking powder, nutmeg, and ginger, mixing thoroughly.

Fry and drain

  1. Heat lard in a deep pan until hot.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into the hot lard and fry until rich brown.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the hot fat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the doughnuts rise and turn light in texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and contributes to browning as the surface fries.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a richer flavour.
Sweet milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.

The step that matters

Fry until rich brown. The hot lard must be fully heated before the dough goes in. If the fat is too cool, the doughnuts absorb oil and turn greasy instead of crisping and browning on the outside.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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