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 ↓
Molasses 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.
Make the dough
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir in molasses and sweet milk until well combined.
In a separate bowl, mix baking soda and ginger.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until a dough forms.
Shape and bake
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Butter
- Adds fat that gives the cookies a tender, rich texture.
- Sugar
- Creams with the butter to add sweetness and help the cookies brown.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness and flavor, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture that helps bind the dough and keeps the cookies soft.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses acidity to produce gas that makes the cookies rise.
- Ginger
- Provides the warm, spicy aroma that defines the cookies.
The step that matters
Baking time. Cookies keep firming as they cool, so overbaking past lightly browned edges leaves them dry and hard rather than soft.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, molasses, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
- Clovefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, milk. 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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