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Oatmeal Biscuits

A short biscuit made from flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, soda, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Oatmeal Biscuits

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first dough

  1. Melt the butter, add it to the flour, oatmeal, sugar and soda, and mix thoroughly.

  2. Put a tablespoonful of cold water into a basin, break the egg into the water and whisk slightly.

  3. Add the egg mixture to the other ingredients and mix smoothly.

  4. Turn onto a well-floured board and roll as thinly as possible.

  5. Cut into shapes with a cake cutter.

  6. Grease a baking tin.

  7. Bake for about twenty minutes.

Make the second mixture

  1. Add the butter to the flour and rub finely with the hands.

  2. Mince the lemon peel and stir it and the sugar into the former mixture.

  3. Well whisk the eggs and lemon juice, then thoroughly mix the whole.

  4. Drop from a spoon onto a greased baking tin about two inches apart.

  5. Bake for twenty minutes.

Whisk, shape and bake

  1. Whisk the eggs for about twelve minutes.

  2. Sprinkle in the sugar gradually, then sprinkle in the coconut.

  3. Form with your hands into little pyramids.

  4. Place upon white paper, and the paper on tins.

  5. Bake in a slow oven until slightly brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

850Calories
25 gProtein
21 gFat
139 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
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
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.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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 biscuit together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a rich flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set and hold its shape in the oven.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown in the oven.
Oatmeal
Gives the biscuits a coarser, slightly nutty texture.
Coconut (in the method)
Adds moisture, chewiness and a sweet coconut flavour.

The step that matters

Whisk the eggs for about twelve minutes. Long whisking traps air in the eggs, which gives the mixture lift and a light, airy texture. Stopping early leaves a denser result.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg. 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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