Name: Cream Cookies
Ingredients: 1 bowl cream; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 bowl sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; flour (enough to make soft dough); 1 teaspoon baking soda (if using sour cream)

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Mix sugar and cream in a bowl and let it stand for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally until dissolved.
Add baking powder and salt to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until a soft dough forms.
If using sour cream, add baking soda.
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

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.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).