Name: Oat Meal Drop Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup white sugar; 2 cups quaker oats; 1 cup seeded raisins cut fine; 1/2 cup hickory nuts; 1 level teaspoon baking 1 cup white sugar; 1 level teaspoon cinnamon; 2 eggs; 1 level teaspoon salt

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Oat Meal Drop Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

% cup butter.
l^ cup sweet milk.
X level teaspoon nutmeg.
1/^ teaspoon cloves.
Drop in buttered baking
pan in spoonfuls some distance
apart. If dough spreads too much add more flour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

349Calories

12 gProtein

8 gFat

58 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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Oat	1/2 cup dry (40g)	154
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Hickory Nut	not in our table	0

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

By Mary Elizabeth Lyles Wilson (1860–1924). 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.

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.

Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Oats + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,394 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Raisin + nutstop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Oats + nutstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together119 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, oats, raisin, cinnamon, egg):

Almondfits better
Flaxseedfits better
Pecansfits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, oats, raisin, cinnamon, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.