Why it works: Oats and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,532 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
New England 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake
In a bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, oats, baking powder, salt, and vanilla if using.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet, spacing them apart to allow for spreading.
Bake until lightly golden, then let cool; they will harden as they cool.
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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Oats + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,532 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + oatstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,548 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help hold the cookies in shape as they set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown lightly in the oven.
- Quaker oats
- Provide the bulk and chewy texture of the cookies.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cookies rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Spacing the drops on the baking sheet. Cookie dough spreads as it heats, so drops placed too close can merge into one mass and bake unevenly.
“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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