Name: Oatmeal Wafers
Ingredients: 12 ounces light brown sugar; ¾ cup lard and butter; 2 eggs; 2 cups sifted flour; ½ teaspoon salt; ¾ teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ pound raisins; 3½ cups oatmeal

Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Oatmeal Wafers

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, mix together the light brown sugar, lard and butter, and eggs using a silver fork.
Add the sifted flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, raisins, and oatmeal. Mix well.
Pat the mixture into cakes and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake

Bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Light brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown and stay soft.
Lard and butter: Provides fat that tenderizes the dough and carries flavor.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure as they set during baking.
Sifted flour: Forms the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sugars and browns the cookies while helping them rise slightly.
Oatmeal: Adds chewy texture and bulk to the dough.

“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.