Name: Vanilla Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; Flour, enough to roll soft; 2 cups sugar; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon vanilla; Sugar for sprinkling

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 ↓

Vanilla 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.

Make the dough

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the milk, vanilla, cream of tartar, and baking soda; mix well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft and manageable.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough on a floured surface and sprinkle sugar on top.
Cut into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly 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.

Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,187 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

Butter: Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cookies a light, tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown and crisp at the edges as they bake.
Baking soda: Reacts with acidic ingredients to release gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the dough, reacting with baking soda to lift the cookies and keep them tender.
Flour: Provides the structure that sets the dough and holds the cut shapes during baking.

“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.