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Oatmeal Macaroons

A sweet cookie made with oats, brown sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Oatmeal Macaroons

Why it works: Oats and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,939 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the brown sugar and butter.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolk, salt, rolled oats, and baking powder to the mixture.

  3. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg white.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.

  2. Smooth the tops with a knife dipped in cold water.

  3. Bake until delicately browned.

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. Oats + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Oats + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Egg white is folded in for lift, and the yolk adds richness and binding to the batter.
Rolled oats
Provide the bulk and chewy texture that gives the macaroons their body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the tops brown during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cookies rise and lighten.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and tenderness in the creamed base.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg white. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg white, which lightens the batter. Overmixing deflates it and yields dense macaroons.

“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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