Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Drop Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the dough
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the milk and egg whites, mixing well.
Stir in the Magic Baking Powder and grated nutmeg.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a buttered baking sheet.
Sprinkle the tops with currants and sugar.
Bake 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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 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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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).
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 add richness and tenderness to the dough.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and help bind the dough as it sets.
- Magic baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the cookies rise and lighten.
- Flour
- Builds the stiff dough structure that holds the drops in shape.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown on top.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very stiff. Adding flour too quickly can make the dough uneven, while too little leaves cookies that spread and lack shape. Adding it slowly lets you judge when the dough is stiff enough to hold its form when dropped.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, nutmeg, 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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