Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Brown Sugar 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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Add the eggs, sweet cream, baking soda, nutmeg, and brandy; mix well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out thin.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and cut with fancy cookie cutters.
Place on a baking sheet and bake until 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.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,920 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown and stay soft.
- Butter
- Provides fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the creamed mixture hold air.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that lets the dough be rolled out and hold cut shapes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic components to help the cookies rise and brown.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out thin. Adding flour slowly lets you judge the dough's stiffness. Too much flour makes cookies dry and tough, while too little leaves dough too sticky to roll and cut cleanly.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, cream, brandy, flour):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Tarragonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, cream, brandy, 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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