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 ↓
White Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter or lard.
Add the sour cream, baking soda, salt, and baking powder, mixing well.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is soft but not sticky.
Flavor the dough with nutmeg.
Bake
Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet and sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°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.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown and crisp at the edges.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture when creamed with sugar.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the cookies soft and tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Baking powder
- Provides additional lift so the cookies puff during baking.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until soft but not sticky. Adding flour in small amounts lets you stop when the dough is soft but not sticky. Too much flour makes cookies dry and dense, while too little makes them spread and hard to handle.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, flour):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.