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Quaker Oats Biscuit

A yeast‑leavened biscuit made with Quaker oats, milk, molasses, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and wheat work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 473 recipes. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Quaker Oats Biscuit

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.

Make the dough

  1. Combine the oatmeal and scalded milk in a mixing bowl and let the mixture stand for five minutes.

  2. Add the melted butter, salt, and molasses to the mixture.

  3. Add lukewarm water, dissolved yeast cake, and both types of flour.

  4. Mix and sift the dough, then beat the mixture thoroughly.

  5. Set it aside to rise, then beat the dough again once risen.

Shape and bake

  1. Fill small buttered gem cups two-thirds full.

  2. Let the cups rise until full.

  3. Bake for 25 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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. Oats + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together473 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

All-purpose flour
Provides gluten structure so the dough holds its shape and rises.
Whole wheat flour
Adds bulk and a nutty, denser texture to the dough.
Yeast cake
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and browning to the finished biscuit.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Quaker oats
Add body, moisture, and a soft, chewy texture to the dough.

The step that matters

Letting the cups rise until full. Yeast dough keeps expanding in the oven, so cups filled only partly may underrise, while overproofed dough can collapse. Judging the rise by volume helps the biscuits set with an even crumb.

“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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