Name: Spice Cookies III
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 1½ cupfuls brown sugar; 1 cupful Crisco; 1 cupful molasses; ½ cupful sour milk; 2 teaspoonfuls baking soda; ½ teaspoonful black pepper; 1 teaspoonful salt; 1 teaspoonful powdered cinnamon; 1 teaspoonful powdered ginger; 1 teaspoonful powdered cloves; 1 teaspoonful grated nutmeg; ½ teaspoonful baking powder; Flour to make a stiff dough

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Crisco: Provides fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark color, and deep sweetness.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk and molasses to lift the dough and help it spread and brown.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Rest the dough overnight. Resting lets the flour fully hydrate and the spices bloom, giving a firmer dough that is easier to roll and cut cleanly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, molasses, milk, pepper, cinnamon, clove):

Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, milk, pepper, cinnamon, clove. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Spice Cookies III