Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓
Sour Cream Cookies II
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in sour cream, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg.
Gradually add enough flour to form a very soft dough.
Shape and bake
Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake until lightly golden.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Butter and flour 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown lightly while baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a lighter texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the dough together.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and a tangy flavor, keeping the cookies tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the cookies rise.
- Baking powder
- Provides additional lift so the cookies rise and set in the oven.
The step that matters
Gradually add enough flour to form a very soft dough. Adding too much flour at once or overworking the dough makes cookies dense and tough. The dough should stay very soft, so add flour gradually and stop once it holds together.
“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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