Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Taylor Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine molasses, brown sugar, and butter in a pot.
Boil the mixture together for five minutes.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Add sweet milk, baking soda, cinnamon, and eggs.
Gradually mix in the flour until well combined.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a large baking pan or use gem pans.
Bake until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift and lighten the cookies.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
The step that matters
Boil the molasses mixture for five minutes. Boiling the molasses, sugar, and butter together dissolves the sugar and drives off some water, which affects the dough's texture and spread. Cooling it before adding the baking soda and eggs keeps the soda from reacting too early and the eggs from scrambling.
“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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