Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream Jumbles
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and lard.
Add the sugar and mix until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the sour milk and baking soda.
Add the milk mixture to the creamed mixture, then incorporate the eggs.
Gradually add the flour and mix until a dough forms.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into fingers and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
- Butter and lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, short texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown during baking.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add richness and structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce lift and a tender crumb.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking soda reacts with the acidic sour milk, so the dough must be mixed and baked promptly to keep the lift. Watching for golden brown colour shows the sugars have caramelised and the jumbles are fully set, avoiding pale, doughy centres.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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