Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boston 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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.
Stir in the flour, nutmeg, and chopped raisins until well combined.
Bake and finish
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Dust with powdered sugar after baking.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps create a tender, lightly crisp texture when creamed with butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and moisture while helping it hold its shape.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the dough to produce gas that helps the cookies rise and spread, and aids browning.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout each cookie.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it mixes evenly; unevenly distributed soda can leave soapy or bitter pockets and uneven rising.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, flour, raisin):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Jalapenofits less well
- Capersfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, flour, raisin. 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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