Name: Huntsville Crackers
Ingredients: 1 lump of risen dough (about the size of your fist); 1 heaping teaspoon loaf sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1 lump butter (about the size of a hen’s egg); 1 lump lard (about the size of a hen’s egg); 1 tablespoon baking soda; ½ cup cream; flour (as needed to make stiff dough)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Huntsville Crackers

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

1 lump of risen dough (about the size of your fist)
1 heaping teaspoon loaf sugar
1 egg yolk
1 lump butter (about the size of a hen’s egg)
1 lump lard (about the size of a hen’s egg)
1 tablespoon baking soda
½ cup cream
flour (as needed to make stiff dough)

Directions

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

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the risen dough with the loaf sugar and egg yolk.
Add the butter and lard, then dissolve the baking soda in the cream and mix it in.
Stir in flour gradually until the dough is quite stiff.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut it into square cakes.
Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Risen dough: Provides the yeast-leavened base that gives the crackers their lift and airy texture.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Lard: Adds fat that makes the crackers short and flaky in texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the dough's acidity to release gas and lighten the crackers.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, helping the dough come together.
Egg yolk: Adds richness and fat, helping bind the dough and aid browning.

The step that matters

Stiffening the dough with flour. Flour must be added gradually until the dough is quite stiff. Too much flour at once can make the crackers dense and tough, while too little leaves them soft and unable to hold their shape when cut and baked.

“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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Huntsville Crackers