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Dessert

Hickory-nut Cookies

Cookies made with hickory nuts, brown sugar, butter, milk, eggs, cream of tartar, baking soda, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Hickory-nut Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and melted butter until well combined.

  2. Add the eggs and milk, and stir until smooth.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the cream of tartar and baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing well.

  5. Fold in the hickory nut meats.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel flavor to the cookies.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
Melted butter
Provides fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough and helps the leavening react with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to produce gas that helps the cookies rise.
Hickory nut meats
Add texture and a rich, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Adding the dry ingredients slowly and mixing gently keeps the dough evenly combined, so the baking soda and cream of tartar distribute well and the cookies rise evenly without overworking the gluten that would make them tough.

“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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