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 ↓
Sugar 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, lard, and sugar together.
Add the beaten egg and beat thoroughly, then mix in the milk.
Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until soft; add more flour if necessary.
Cut and bake
Roll the dough to 1/4 inch thick, cut with cookie cutters, and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until 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.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Butter and lard
- Fat that makes the cookies tender and rich in flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown at the edges.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cookies' shape.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the cookies rise and lighten.
- Milk
- Adds moisture that helps bring the dough together.
The step that matters
Mixing in the dry ingredients. Once the flour is added, mixing too much develops gluten, which makes the cookies tough instead of tender. Stop as soon as the dough is soft, and add only as much extra flour as needed.
“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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