Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Eix- Cellent Jumbles
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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl.
Beat the egg and add it to the creamed mixture.
Stir in the nutmeg, cream, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to hold its shape.
Bake and cool
Spoon the mixture into buttered ring molds.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
Remove from the molds and let cool on a plate.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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
- Creamed with sugar to give the dough richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Creams with the butter for sweetness and helps the cookies brown.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Builds the structure so the dough holds its shape in the molds.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift the dough and give it a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to hold its shape. Too much flour makes the jumbles dry and tough, while too little leaves a dough that spreads and loses its shape in the molds. Adding flour gradually lets the cook stop once the dough is firm enough.
“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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