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Bread

Corn-meal Cookies

A sweet biscuit made with flour, cornmeal, sugar, shortening, and baking powder, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Corn-meal Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Cream together the sugar, shortening, and syrup.

  2. Add the well-beaten egg and vanilla.

  3. Sift together the flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

  4. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture.

  5. Add just enough milk to make a dough stiff enough to roll without sticking.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough very thin.

  2. Cut the rolled dough into desired shapes.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until delicately browned.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookie together as it bakes.
Corn meal
Adds a coarse, grainy texture and a distinct corn flavor.
Shortening
Creates tenderness by coating flour particles and keeping the crumb short.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.

The step that matters

Add just enough milk. Too much milk makes the dough sticky and hard to roll and cut, while too little leaves it crumbly. Adding milk gradually and stopping once the dough is stiff enough to roll keeps the texture tender and the shapes clean.

“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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