Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fruit Cookies
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 large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, raisins, currants, and chopped walnuts; mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture.
Gradually stir in the flour until the dough is manageable.
Shape and bake
Cut the dough into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 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 sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown when creamed with butter.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cookies.
- Sour milk
- Provides acidity to activate the baking soda and adds moisture.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough as gluten develops.
The step that matters
Gradually stir in the flour. Adding flour gradually and stopping once the dough is manageable prevents overmixing, which develops too much gluten and makes cookies tough.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, raisin, walnut, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, walnut, milk, 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.
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