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Dessert

Vanilla Cookies

Vanilla cookies made with sugar, milk, butter, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, coconut, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Vanilla Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

  3. In another bowl, cream 1 cup butter and add 2 beaten eggs. Combine the mixtures and add 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teacup coconut.

  4. Gradually mix in flour until soft.

  5. Roll the dough to about 1 inch thick.

Frost and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg white until stiff, then gradually add 4 tablespoons granulated sugar to make frosting.

  2. Cover the cookies with the frosting and sprinkle with coconut.

  3. Bake until light brown, watching closely to prevent burning.

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.

  1. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and milk to lift the cookies and help browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough to give the cookies lift and a lighter crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown, watching closely. The cookies brown quickly at 400°F because the sugars caramelize and then scorch. Pulling them as soon as they turn light brown prevents a bitter, burnt taste.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, milk, vanilla, butter, egg, flour):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, milk, vanilla, butter, egg, 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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