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Dessert

Gusky Cookies

Cookies made with butter, cinnamon, almonds, citron, brown sugar, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond 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 ↓

Gusky Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix the butter, cinnamon, almonds, citron, and brown sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add flour until the dough is manageable.

  3. If the dough is too crumbly, press it evenly into tins by hand.

Finish and cut

  1. Brush the top with egg white before baking.

  2. Cut into small squares immediately after removing from the oven, before taking them out of the pan.

  3. Press half an almond into the center of each square.

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 + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft sugar dough.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the dough richness and a tender bite.
Citron
Adds chewy, candied fruit flavor and moisture to the dough.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavors the dough.

The step that matters

Cut into squares right after baking. Cookies are soft and hot when they leave the oven and firm up as they cool. Cutting them immediately, while still warm and pliable, keeps the pieces clean and prevents cracking or crumbling.

“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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