Name: Scotch Shortbread
Ingredients: ½ pound all-purpose flour; 6 ounces sifted sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened; 1 teacup (about ½ cup) heavy cream; 1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional); 1 tablespoon ground almonds (optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Scotch Shortbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

½ pound all-purpose flour
6 ounces sifted sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 teacup (about ½ cup) heavy cream
1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon ground almonds (optional)

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.

Make the dough

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.
Add the softened butter and cream, mixing until well combined.
If desired, stir in the cinnamon and ground almonds.

Shape and bake

Fill small molds with the mixture, ensuring it is about 2 inches thick.
Bake for 30 minutes until golden.

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.

Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the shortbread together.
Unsalted butter: Adds fat for a rich, tender crumb.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown.
Heavy cream: Adds moisture and richness to bind the dough.

Swap the cinnamon

The recipe marks cinnamon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, cream, almond):

Cinnamonthe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Capersfits less well
Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, cream, almond. 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.