Name: Crisp Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 2 cups sugar; 3 eggs, well beaten; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; 1 cup milk; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; flour, enough to make a soft dough

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Crisp Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the beaten eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, milk, nutmeg, and cinnamon; mix well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft but stiff enough to roll out.
Start with 1 pint of flour and adjust as needed.
Roll out the dough, spread a little milk on top, and sprinkle with sugar.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).