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Dessert

Boston Cookies

A sweet cookie made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, sour milk, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Boston Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boston 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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and soft sugar.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then mix in the sour milk or hot water.

  2. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.

  3. Fold in the chopped raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into gem pans.

  2. Bake 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.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Eggs
Add structure and moisture, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk or hot water to lighten the batter and aid rising.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the cookies.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Adding the flour slowly and mixing gently keeps the batter smooth and avoids overworking the flour, which would make the cookies tough.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, milk, cinnamon, 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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