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Dessert

Honey Jumbles

Honey Jumbles are sweet cookies made with sugar, butter, honey, molasses, eggs, baking soda, ammonia, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Honey Jumbles

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, butter, honey, and molasses until well combined.

  3. Add the eggs, baking soda, ammonia, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix until a dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and use a jumbled horn or piping bag to shape the cookies on greased and dusted baking pans.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Honey + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 main structure that holds the cookie dough together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cookies rise and spread.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly acidic flavor that promotes browning.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the cookies stay soft and browning.

The step that matters

Mix until a dough forms. Adding the leavening and dry ingredients together is where the dough's balance is set. Mixing only until combined keeps flour gluten development limited, so the cookies stay tender rather than tough.

“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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