Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Cream the brown sugar and melted butter together.
Add the egg, flour, milk, baking soda, and melted chocolate, mixing well.
Fold in the walnuts and raisins.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Make the frosting and finish
For the frosting, combine ¾ cup sugar, ½ cup grated chocolate, 3 tablespoons cream, 1 teaspoon butter, and 2 eggs in a bowl.
Cook the mixture over boiling water until glossy, then beat well.
Cover each cookie with the chocolate frosting.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and, in the frosting, thickens gently when heated to a glossy texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lift the dough and encourages browning in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat that gives the cookies a rich, tender texture.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a molasses flavor.
- Chocolate
- Supplies the main chocolate flavor and richness to both cookies and frosting.
The step that matters
Cook the frosting over boiling water until glossy. The eggs thicken the frosting gently as they warm. Too much heat can scramble them, leaving lumps, so keep the mixture moving and avoid letting it boil hard.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, raisin, butter, milk, chocolate, egg, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, butter, milk, chocolate, egg, flour. 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.
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