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 ↓
Sour Cream Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, sour cream, baking soda, and lemon extract; mix well.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft and can be rolled out.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough thin.
Cut into desired shapes.
Sprinkle sugar on top.
Place the dough on a baking sheet.
Bake for about 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.
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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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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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).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cookies a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cookies and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, fluffy texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough together.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread lightly.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together and lets the dough be rolled out.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft and can be rolled out. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff and dry, producing tough cookies. Stopping once the dough is soft but rollable keeps the cookies tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, cream, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, cream, 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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