Name: Plain Jumbles
Ingredients: 3 cups sugar; 2 cups butter; 3 eggs; 4 tablespoons sour cream; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 pound sugar; 1 pound butter; ½ teaspoon baking powder; milk (as needed)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plain Jumbles

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, cream together 3 cups of sugar and 2 cups of butter.
Add 3 eggs and 4 tablespoons of sour cream, mixing well.
Stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
For the second version, cream 1 pound of sugar and 1 pound of butter.
Beat 4 eggs and add ½ teaspoon of baking powder and enough milk to soften the mixture.
Roll the dough thin and cut out shapes with a cake cutter.

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.

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).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).