Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Sugar 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 the dough
Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, sour cream, butter, eggs, and baking soda.
Gradually add flour until a stiff dough forms.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough out thinly on a floured surface.
Sprinkle the rolled dough with sugar and roll it lightly again.
Cut into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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
- Adds fat that makes the cookies tender and rich in flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown at the edges.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and a slight tang that keeps the cookies tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies' shape.
The step that matters
Rolling the dough thinly. Thin dough bakes evenly and crisps quickly, while thick dough stays soft in the middle and bakes unevenly. Rolling on a floured surface also keeps it from sticking.
“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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