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Dessert

Egoless Cookies

Cookies made without eggs, using buttermilk or soda, sugar, margarine or butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Egoless Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the flour, soda, and baking powder thoroughly.

  2. Mix in the sugar and then the shortening.

  3. If necessary, add more flour, but avoid using too much.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to a scant ½ inch thick, sprinkle with sugar, and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until just set, avoiding browning.

  3. Optionally, finish with a raisin or nut before baking.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the soda to produce gas that lifts the dough and tenderizes it.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to release gas that makes the cookies rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to give the cookies additional lift.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps tenderize the crumb.
Margarine or butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and carries flavour.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cookies' shape.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven until just set. Overbaking dries out the cookies and causes browning, so they should be removed once just set. Carryover heat finishes the centre as they cool.

“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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