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Dessert

Feuit Cookies

Soft cookies made with brown sugar, lard, molasses, raisins, walnuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Feuit Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream together the brown sugar and lard.

  2. Add the well-beaten eggs and mix well.

  3. In a large dish, combine the molasses and hot water.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the molasses mixture until foaming.

  5. Stir in the remaining ingredients until well combined.

Bake

  1. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies stay soft.
Lard
Provides fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, slightly acidic flavor.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
Baking soda
Reacts with molasses to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cookies as they bake.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and foaming the molasses mixture. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed in until the molasses foams, so the acid in molasses releases carbon dioxide evenly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter or cause uneven rising.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, egg, cinnamon, clove, raisin, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, egg, cinnamon, clove, raisin, 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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