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Dessert

Oat Meal Cookies

A simple baked cookie made with oats, sugar, butter, egg, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and oats 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 ↓

Oat Meal Cookies

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the dough

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, stir together the baking powder and salt with the oats.

  4. Add the oat mixture to the sugar, butter, and egg mixture. Mix lightly.

Bake

  1. Drop 1 teaspoon of the mixture onto a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 10-12 minutes or 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + eggtop 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. Sugar + oatstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,548 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 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

Oats
Provide the bulk and chewy texture of the cookie.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the cookies hold together and brown.
Egg
Binds the ingredients together and adds structure and moisture.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and crisp at the edges.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cookies rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Mixing the oat mixture into the dough. Mixing only lightly keeps the dough tender. Overworking it can make the cookies tough and dense, because extra mixing develops more structure than this soft, oat-based dough needs.

“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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