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Dessert

Quaker Biscuit

A biscuit made from rolled oats, flour, molasses, and yeast, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Quaker 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Scald the rolled oats with boiling water and let stand for 1 hour.

  2. Add shortening, molasses, salt, and the dissolved yeast.

  3. Mix in the flour and let the dough rise.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough, let it rise again, and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 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.

  1. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oats + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Oats + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rolled oats
Absorb the boiling water and add a hearty, chewy texture to the dough.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and flavor, and helps the biscuits brown in the oven.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise before baking.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as it bakes.
Shortening
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer bite.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise twice. The yeast needs enough time to ferment and build gas, which gives the biscuits lift. Rising too short leaves them dense, while over-rising can weaken the structure so they collapse in the oven.

“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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