Name: White Ginger Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 3 eggs, well beaten; 1 cup sour cream (not too rich); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon vanilla or 1 tablespoon ginger; grated orange peel; 2 cups all-purpose flour

Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

White Ginger 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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs and sour cream, mixing well.
Sift the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into the flour, then gradually add to the mixture.
Mix until the dough is soft enough to handle.
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

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.

Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,371 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the orange

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

Raisinfits better
Blueberryfits better
Figfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, cinnamon, vanilla, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.