Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sugar Cookies
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and lard.
Beat in the eggs, then add the sour milk and dissolved baking soda.
Gradually mix in enough flour to form a soft dough.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough thin and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in the preheated oven 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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Creaming with lard adds sweetness and helps give the cookies a tender crumb.
- Lard
- Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that tenderises the dough and carries flavour.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they are beaten in.
- Sour milk or cream
- Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and brown.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that turns the mixture into a soft, rollable dough.
The step that matters
Gradually mixing in the flour. Adding flour slowly and stopping once a soft dough forms keeps the gluten from overdeveloping, which would make the cookies tough.
“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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