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Dessert

Scotch Cookies

A molasses and spice cookie baked with butter or lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Scotch 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 molasses, sugar, butter, and eggs until well combined.

  3. Add baking soda, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and enough flour to form a dough.

  4. Roll the dough thin and cut into shapes.

Bake and glaze

  1. Place on a baking sheet, giving each cookie space.

  2. Bake until half done, then brush with a glaze made from the yolk of an egg mixed with an equal amount of water and ¼ teaspoon sugar.

  3. Return to the oven and finish baking.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, dark flavor to the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the dough hold together.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift the cookies and promote browning.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled and cut into shapes.

The step that matters

Bake until half done before glazing. Glazing too early or leaving the cookies in too long changes the finish. Baking partway first sets the surface so the egg glaze can coat it and brown evenly when returned to the oven.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, egg, allspice, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, egg, allspice, cinnamon, 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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