Why it works: Sugar and buttermilk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
French Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Mix the brown sugar, butter, and lard until crumbly like pie crust.
Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.
Add just enough buttermilk mixture to the crumbs to make them stick together.
On a floured surface, knead the dough well and roll it very thin.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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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Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + buttermilktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Light brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
- Lard
- Adds fat that keeps the dough short and crumbly like pie crust.
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that binds the crumbs into dough.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the buttermilk's acidity to lift and lighten the cookies.
The step that matters
Adding the buttermilk mixture. Adding too much liquid makes the dough sticky and tough, while too little leaves it crumbly and unable to hold together. Add it gradually, only until the crumbs cling.
“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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