Name: Hickory-nut Cookies
Ingredients: ½ cup sour milk; 1 cup chopped nuts; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 3 eggs; sugar for dipping

Why it works: Milk and nuts work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 982 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Hickory-nut Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the sour milk, chopped nuts, and baking soda.
Add the eggs and mix well.

Shape and bake

Dip the mixture in sugar.
Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.
Bake until golden brown.
Let cool before serving.

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.

Milk + nutstop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together982 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Nuts + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,228 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cookies.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and lighten.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.
Chopped nuts: Add texture, body and a toasty flavour to the cookies.