Why it works: Chocolate and nuts work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Measure 1 cup brown sugar and ½ cup butter; melt the butter.
Beat in 1 egg, ½ cup sweet milk, and ½ teaspoon soda dissolved in the milk.
Stir in ½ cup well sifted flour, 2 tablespoonfuls melted chocolate, 2 ½ cups seeded raisins, and 2 ½ cups chopped nuts.
Bake
Drop dough from a dessert spoon into buttered tins and bake.
To bake cookies well, invert a dripping pan, butter the bottom, and place cookies on it.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate | 1 oz (28g) semisweet | 155 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Grape | 1/2 cup (76g) | 62 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Nuts | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
Chocolate + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together440 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
-
Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together490 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies stay soft.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and gives it structure as it sets.
- Flour (in the method)
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
- Soda (in the method)
- Reacts to lift the dough and help the cookies rise.
The step that matters
Butter the pan before placing the cookies on it. A buttered surface keeps soft, sugary dough from sticking to the metal, so the cookies release cleanly and brown evenly instead of scorching on the base.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, chocolate, nuts, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Datesfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, chocolate, nuts, egg. 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.
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