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A small cookie sandwich with jelly between two buttered sugar cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

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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.

Make the dough

  1. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the beaten egg, baking soda, and cream of tartar, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add the flour, mixing until soft dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut with a small cake cutter.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Assemble

  1. Spread jelly on one cookie and top with another.

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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Creams with the sugar to give the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to help the cookies rise and spread.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough, stabilising its rise and adding a slight tang.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Adding flour in stages and mixing only until a soft dough forms keeps gluten development limited, so the cookies stay tender rather than tough.

“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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