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Oatmeal Cakes

A batter of cream, sour milk, sugar, baking soda, and oatmeal cooked on a skillet.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Oatmeal Cakes

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Oatmeal Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine the cream, sour milk, sugar, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add oatmeal until the mixture forms a thick batter.

Cook

  1. Cook on a greased skillet over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda, producing gas that lightens the cakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce carbon dioxide, helping the cakes rise.
Oatmeal
Provides the bulk and body that turns the liquid into a thick, cakeable batter.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the cakes a richer, softer texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during cooking.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat until golden on both sides. Medium heat lets the centre set through while the outside browns. Too high a heat scorches the surface before the batter cooks through.

“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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