Name: Theo's Cookies
Ingredients: 2 cups molasses; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 cup butter; 1 egg

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Theo's Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups molasses
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup butter
1 egg

Directions

In a large bowl, combine molasses, baking soda, butter, and egg.
Mix until very soft and well combined.

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.

Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,123 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,879 recipes