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 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the dough
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
Add beaten eggs and sour cream, mixing well.
Sift flour and baking soda into mixture, then add vanilla extract.
Use as little flour as possible to achieve desired dough consistency.
For chocolate cookies, add 1 square of melted chocolate after mixing in part of the flour.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10-12 minutes.
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.
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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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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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Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to give the cookies richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown while creaming aerates it.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, keeping the cookies soft.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to lift and lighten the cookies.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cookies as they bake.
The step that matters
Use as little flour as possible. Extra flour develops gluten and absorbs moisture, making the cookies tough and dry rather than soft.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, cream, flour):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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