Name: Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp; 1 cup, packed, golden brown sugar,; 2 large eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/4 tsp salt; 1/8 tsp ground pepper; 1 12 oz pkg chocolate chips

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. 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.

Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,020 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,890 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Unsalted butter: Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Brown sugar: Adds moisture and molasses flavor, and helps the cookies stay soft and chewy.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
All purpose flour: Provides the main structure that sets as the cookies bake.
Baking soda: Reacts with the dough to help the cookies rise and spread and brown.
Chocolate chips: Melt in the oven to add sweetness and pockets of rich chocolate.

The step that matters

Chilling the dough. Chilling firms the butter so cookies spread less and develop deeper flavor and a thicker, chewier texture. Skipping it often gives flat, greasy cookies.

“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
Chocolate	1 oz (28g) semisweet	155
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies