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Orange Cookies

A sweet cookie dough made with sugar, sour milk, butter or lard, soda, salt, egg, orange juice and rind, baked quickly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,696 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Orange Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the sugar, sour milk, butter or lard, soda, salt, egg, orange juice and grated rind.

  2. Stir the ingredients well together and add enough flour to make a soft dough.

  3. Cut the dough into pieces and bake in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

338Calories
16 gProtein
14 gFat
40 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Milk + orangetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cookies soft and moist.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda and adds tenderness to the dough.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cookies rise.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Orange
Its juice adds acidity and its grated rind adds fragrant orange aroma.

The step that matters

Adding enough flour to make a soft dough. Too much flour absorbs the liquid and develops structure, making the cookies dry, dense and tough. Stop adding flour once the dough is soft and just holds together.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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