Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓
Graham Crackers
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a bowl, beat together sugar, butter, and egg white until well combined.
Add cream of tartar, baking soda, and water; mix well.
Gradually add graham flour until the dough is thin enough to roll out.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and cut it into squares.
Prick each square with a fork.
Bake in a quick oven at 400°F (200°C) until crisp.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 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
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crackers brown while baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a rich flavor.
- Egg white
- Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to lighten the dough and aid browning.
- Graham flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough and gives the crackers their whole-grain flavor.
The step that matters
Gradually add graham flour until the dough is thin enough to roll out. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the dough's consistency, since too much flour makes it dry and crumbly while too little makes it sticky and hard to roll thin. Thin dough bakes evenly and turns crisp rather than soft.
“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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