Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Sour Cream Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, mix together the sugar and the lard and butter until well combined.
Add the sour cream, egg, baking soda, and nutmeg, and mix until smooth.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden.
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.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 the cookies brown lightly as they bake.
- Lard and butter
- Provides fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity, giving the cookies a tender texture.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure to the cookies.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten structure that makes the dough stiff enough to roll and cut.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. Adding too much flour at once or too little overall changes the dough's texture. Flour absorbs liquid and builds gluten, so adding it gradually lets you stop when the dough is workable without making the cookies tough or dry.
“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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