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Dessert

Pecan Cookies

A sweet cookie made with pecans, oats, butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, milk, egg, salt, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Pecan Cookies

Why it works: Pecans and oats match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 289 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Pecan Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  3. Add the egg and milk, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well combined.

  6. Stir in the chopped pecans, rolled oats, salt, and vanilla extract.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto greased baking paper.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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.

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. Pecans + oatstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Oats + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,532 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown and stay soft.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure as the cookies set.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
Chopped pecans
Add nutty flavour and a crisp bite to the cookies.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour mixture. Adding the flour in portions and mixing only until combined keeps the dough from becoming tough, since overworked flour develops gluten and makes cookies dense.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansthe original
  3. Flaxseedfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits about as well

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