Name: Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients: ½ cup butter and lard; 1 cup brown sugar; ½ cup milk; 2½ cups flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 squares chocolate

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 ↓

Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

Cream the butter and lard with the brown sugar.
Add the unbeaten egg and beat thoroughly.
Stir in the melted chocolate and mix well.
Add the milk and combine.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until smooth.

Shape and bake

Roll the dough to 1 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,128 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour: Forms the main structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Butter and lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a soft chewy texture.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
Chocolate: Contributes rich chocolate flavor and color to the dough.
Milk: Adds moisture that helps bind the dough and keeps it soft.

“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.