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Dessert

Oatmeal Cookies

A sweet cookie made with oatmeal, raisins, nuts, molasses, and Karo syrup, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Oatmeal Cookies

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Oatmeal Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the shortening.

  2. Combine melted shortening with Karo syrup, molasses, and beaten egg.

  3. Add oatmeal, chopped nuts, and raisins.

  4. Stir in flour sifted with baking powder, cloves, salt, allspice, baking soda, and cinnamon until the dough is stiff enough to drop from a spoon.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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.

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.

  1. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Syrup + molassestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together490 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shortening
Adds fat that keeps the cookies tender and helps them spread.
Flour
Provides structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the cookies rise and brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and depth of flavor, and promotes browning.
Oatmeal
Adds bulk and a chewy texture to the dough.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour mixture until stiff. Stirring only until the dough is stiff enough to drop from a spoon keeps it from becoming tough. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes cookies dense rather than tender.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, syrup, molasses, flour, clove, egg, allspice):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, syrup, molasses, flour, clove, egg, allspice. 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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