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Dessert

Plain Rolled Cookies

A simple cookie made with flour, sugar, shortening, milk, baking powder, salt, egg, and flavoring extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plain Rolled Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cream together the sugar and shortening.

  3. Add the beaten egg, flavoring extract, salt, and baking powder to the mixture.

  4. Gradually add the sifted flour and enough milk to form a dough that is stiff enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 cookies together as they bake.
Shortening
Creaming with sugar traps air and makes the cookies tender and short.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and, creamed with fat, helps give a light texture and browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cookies rise and lighten.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds moisture and structure as it sets in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour forms a dough that can be rolled out.

The step that matters

Adding the milk gradually. Flour hydrates as it is mixed, so adding milk a little at a time lets you reach a dough that is stiff enough to roll without becoming tough from overworking the gluten.

“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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