Name: Currant Cookies
Ingredients: 1½ cups brown sugar; 1 cup butter, softened; 2 eggs; 1 cup currants; 2 tablespoons milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; cinnamon, to taste; cloves, to taste; nutmeg, to taste

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Currant 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter until smooth.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the currants and milk.
Mix in the baking soda and spices to taste.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or 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.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the cookies stay tender and spread.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure and moisture as they set in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the dough to help the cookies rise and brown.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness, moisture and caramel flavour, and promotes browning.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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.