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Dessert

Cokn-meal Cookies

A sweet cookie made with cornmeal, flour, molasses, syrup, and melted fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and molasses work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 272 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cokn-meal Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the melted fat, syrup, molasses, beaten egg, and sour milk.

  2. In another bowl, sift together the corn meal, baking soda, and flour.

  3. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 15 minutes.

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. Syrup + molassestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Provides the main body and gritty, crumbly texture of the cookies.
All-purpose flour
Adds structure so the cookies hold their shape while baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses so the cookies rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness, and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Beaten egg
Binds the ingredients together and adds structure and richness.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients. Mixing just until combined keeps the batter tender. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make cookies tough, and the baking soda begins reacting as soon as it meets the acidic liquids, so the batter should go into the oven promptly.

“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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