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Dessert

Oatmeal Crackers

A baked cracker made from oatmeal, brown sugar, butter, hot water, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oatmeal Crackers

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

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

  2. In a bowl, mix brown sugar, butter, hot water, oatmeal, and baking soda.

  3. Add enough flour to form a very stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough very thin.

  2. Cut into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet.

  3. Bake until lightly golden. Let cool before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crackers brown as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives the crackers tenderness and a rich flavor.
Oatmeal
Provides bulk and a toasty, nutty texture to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sugar and other ingredients to promote browning and a crisp texture.
Flour
Gives structure to the dough so it holds its shape when rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Roll the dough very thin. Thin dough dries out and crisps in the oven, while thicker pieces stay soft in the center. Even thickness also helps the crackers bake evenly.

“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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