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Dessert

Oatmeal Biscuits

A baked biscuit made with flour, oatmeal, sugar, lard or butter, baking soda, egg, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Biscuits

Why it works: Flour and butter 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 Biscuits

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Melt the lard or butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. In a bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, castor sugar, and baking soda.

  3. Stir in the melted lard or butter.

  4. In a cup, mix the cold water and egg, then beat slightly.

  5. Add the egg mixture to the bowl and mix until smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it.

  2. Roll out the dough as thin as possible using a floured rolling pin.

  3. Use a floured tumbler to cut the dough into biscuits.

  4. Grease a baking tin with butter and place the biscuits on it.

  5. Bake in a preheated 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.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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
Forms the main structure of the dough once hydrated.
Lard or butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a crumbly, short texture.
Oatmeal
Adds bulk, a toasty flavor, and a slightly coarser texture.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough to lift it slightly and aid browning.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the biscuits and promotes golden browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough as thin as possible. Thin dough bakes quickly and crisply all the way through. Thick dough stays soft and doughy in the centre, and uneven thickness bakes 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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