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Dessert

Chocolate Cookies

A cookie made with milk, butter, lard, sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla, grated chocolate, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chocolate Cookies

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the lard, butter, and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the milk, then add the vanilla and grated chocolate, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Gradually add enough flour to form a medium stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough thinly and cut with a round cutter.

  2. For a nicer finish, wash the tops with milk before baking.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Adds fat and richness, giving the cookies a tender texture and flavour.
Lard
Adds fat that helps keep the cookies tender and short.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and aids browning on the surface.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and a rich, deep taste throughout the cookies.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour. Flour should be added little by little so the dough reaches a medium stiff consistency. Too much flour at once can make the cookies dry and tough, since flour proteins develop gluten when mixed.

“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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