Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine melted butter and brown sugar.
Add eggs and mix well.
Dissolve baking soda in water and add to the mixture.
Stir in baking powder.
Gradually add flour until a soft dough forms.
Chill
Chill the dough in the refrigerator to harden before rolling out.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the cookies.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the brown sugar's acidity to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas as it works, helping the cookies rise and become lighter.
- Light brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel flavour to the cookies.
- Melted butter
- Provides fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps the dough hold together.
The step that matters
Chill the dough before rolling out. Melted butter makes a soft dough that spreads and sticks when warm. Chilling firms the fat so the dough holds its shape and is easier to roll and cut.
“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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