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Spiced Cookies

A spiced cookie recipe with lard, butter, sugar, eggs, sour milk, soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix three heaping cups of brown sugar, two eggs, one cup of lard, one teacup of sour milk, one teaspoon of soda, three tablespoons of cinnamon, even teaspoon of cloves, and one nutmeg.

  2. Add flour enough to roll.

  3. Mix one cup of sugar, a half cup of butter, three eggs, one tablespoon of sour milk, a half teaspoon of soda, and nutmeg.

  4. Add flour to roll as soft as possible.

  5. Mix one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, four eggs, one small teaspoon of soda, and a little nutmeg until soft.

Prepare and bake

  1. Put a cloth lightly over the paste-board and rub it well with flour; this will prevent the dough from sticking.

  2. Bake in a very quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

518Calories
15 gProtein
39 gFat
30 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6

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

By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Cinnamon + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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 to the cookies.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, contributing to tenderness and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown during baking.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the soda to help the cookies rise and soften.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas for lift and tenderness.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg, tea. 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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