Name: Snickerdoodles IV
Yield: 36
Ingredients: 344 g (2 ¾ cups or 24 oz ) all-purpose flour; ¼ tsp salt; 1 tsp baking soda; 2 tsp cream of tartar; 300 g (1½ cups or 9 oz) superfine sugar; 110 g (½ cup or 4 oz) butter; 100 g (½ cup or 4 oz) shortening; 2 eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 3 tbsp sugar; 1½ tsp cinnamon

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).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the cookie together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor, and helps the cookies spread and brown.
Shortening: Adds tenderness and helps the cookies keep their shape while baking.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the cookies.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the dough, reacting with baking soda to help the cookies rise and stay tender.

The step that matters

Bake for 10 minutes or until crisp and light brown. Cookies keep baking from residual heat after leaving the oven, so pulling them when lightly browned at the edges helps prevent over-browning and dryness. Overbaking makes them hard rather than chewy.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla):

Cinnamonthe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Capersfits less well
Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla. 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
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Snickerdoodles IV