Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
Add the sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, grated nutmeg, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough thin and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 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.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown lightly while creaming aerates the dough.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness to the cookies.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cookies bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic partner to baking soda, producing lift and a softer texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring only until combined keeps gluten development low, preventing tough cookies and an uneven dough.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, sugar, egg, flour, cream):
- Nutmegthe original
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, sugar, egg, flour, cream. 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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