Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Hickory Nut Drop Cakes
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.
Make the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sour cream.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the hickory nuts and any desired flavoring.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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).
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 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).
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
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity that tenderises the crumb and activates the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to release gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
- Hickory nuts
- Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour to the cakes.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour mixture. Mixing flour into the batter only until combined keeps gluten development limited, so the cakes stay tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cream, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Macadamia nutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, 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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