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Dessert

Hermit Cookies

Cookies made with butter, sugar, eggs, currants, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, hot water, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Hermit Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the currants and raisins.

  4. In a separate bowl, dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Add the cinnamon and cloves, then mix until combined.

  6. Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to create a tender, structured crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and, creamed with butter, helps give them a tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled out and hold its cut shapes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the mixture to help the cookies rise and brown.
Currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the dough.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed, or it leaves bitter pockets and uneven rising and browning. Hot water helps it dissolve quickly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon, clove, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon, clove, flour. 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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