Name: Very Rich Cookies
Ingredients: 1½ pints sifted flour; 1 pint light-brown sugar; ½ cup thick, sour cream; 2 teaspoons carraway seeds; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon boiling water; 1 egg; ½ cup softened butter

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Very Rich Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Soften the butter.
Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water.

Make and bake

In a bowl, stir together the softened butter, sugar, sour cream, egg, dissolved baking soda mixture, caraway seeds, and flour.
Roll the dough, cut it into shapes, and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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: Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Egg: Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that lifts the dough and aids browning.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and acidity, which tenderizes the dough and activates the baking soda.
Light-brown sugar: Sweetens the cookies and promotes browning and moisture.

“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.