Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Aunt Line's 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 the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening.
Add the eggs and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and nutmeg.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.
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.
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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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).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Sweetens the dough and helps create a tender, crisp edge when creamed with fat.
- Shortening
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add moisture and structure as the cookies set.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cookies rise and spread.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that reacts with baking soda to leaven the dough and adds slight tang.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring just until combined keeps the dough from overworking. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make cookies tough rather than tender.
“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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