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Dessert

Oatmeal Cookies

A baked cookie made with butter, sugar, molasses, eggs, oatmeal, flour, nuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Oatmeal Cookies

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Cream one cup butter, one cup brown sugar, one cup molasses, and three eggs until smooth.

  2. Stir 2 cups fine oatmeal with a heaving teaspoonful of soda dissolved in 2–3 cups boiling water, one cup pecans, raisins, currants, a teaspoon of spices, salt to taste, and enough flour to form a stiff dough; drop small pats into a greased pan, spacing them far apart.

Make the batter

  1. Cream 2–3 cups butter and 2 cups sugar; add beaten eggs and closely chopped nuts (about 2 cups of nuts and about half a 10‑cent can).

  2. Mix 2 level teaspoons baking powder with half a cup flour and add to the oatmeal mixture.

  3. Combine all ingredients to make a stiff dough; drop tablespoon-sized portions about three inches apart in a buttered pan and bake in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

838Calories
25 gProtein
21 gFat
135 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Oat1/2 cup dry (40g)154
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + oatstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the cookies spread and brown.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
Oatmeal
Gives the cookies chewy body and a hearty texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and crisp at the edges.
Flour
Provides structure so the dough holds its shape when baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven to lift and lighten the cookies.

The step that matters

Forming a stiff dough before dropping. A stiff dough holds its shape in the pan. If the dough is too loose, the cookies spread thin and can run together during 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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