Name: How We Cook in Tennessee
Ingredients: one pound sugar; one pound flour; half pound butter; half pound blanched almonds cut thin; one cup sugar; two tablespoons melted butter; one cup buttermilk; two cups sugar; two teaspoons bak- ing powder; two teaspoons melted lard; one cup milk; one cup of sugar; one cup sour; two tablespoons of melted butter; one teaspoon of soda; two eggs; one egg; one-eighth inch thick; cinnamon; nutmeg; salt

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and tenderness to the dough, helping it bake crisp and short.
Egg: Binds the dough and, as the white, gives the shapes a glossy coat that helps the topping stick.
Almonds: Add a nutty flavour and crunch to the topped surface of each cookie.
Sugar: Sweetens the dough and the topping, and helps the surface brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Roll the dough very thin. Thin dough bakes quickly and evenly into a crisp cookie. Thick dough stays soft in the middle and can burn at the edges before it sets.

“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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

How We Cook in Tennessee