Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Oat Meal Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and lard or Cottolene.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the cinnamon.
Mix in the milk and baking soda until well combined.
Fold in the raisins and oat meal.
Add flour gradually until the mixture is stiff.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps create a tender, crisp texture when creamed with fat.
- Lard or cottolene
- Fat that creams with sugar to add tenderness and richness to the cookies.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and moisture as they are beaten in.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the dough to help the cookies rise and brown.
- Oat meal
- Adds chewy body and a hearty oat flavor to the cookies.
- Flour
- Provides structure, stiffening the dough so the spoonfuls hold their shape.
The step that matters
Add flour gradually until the mixture is stiff. Flour builds structure as it hydrates and gluten forms, so adding it slowly lets you stop once the dough holds its shape. Too much flour makes the cookies dry and dense.
“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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