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Dessert

Oatmeal Cakes

A yeasted cake made with boiled oatmeal, flour, milk, butter, sugar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Cakes

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 ↓

Oatmeal Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Let the freshly cooked oatmeal cool slightly.

  2. If the oatmeal is cold and lumpy, stir in a little warm milk to soften.

  3. Melt the butter and add it to the oatmeal.

  4. Stir in the sugar, then gradually add the flour and milk.

  5. Sift the flour before measuring.

  6. Add the yeast last and mix well for 8–10 minutes.

  7. Let the mixture rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter a gem roll pan.

  2. Fill the pan about three‑quarters full with the batter.

  3. Let the cakes rise for about an hour until well above the top of the pan.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they rise and set.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the cakes a light, airy crumb.
Boiled oatmeal
Adds moisture and a soft, tender texture to the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast to form a smooth, workable batter.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Let the cakes rise until well above the pan. Yeast needs time to produce gas and expand the dough; underproofed cakes stay dense, while the rise is what gives them lightness before baking.

“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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