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Dessert

Oatmeal Macaroons

A sweet cookie made with butter, sugar, eggs, rolled oats, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Oatmeal Macaroons

Why it works: Butter and oats are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,939 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Macaroons

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.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and salt, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the rolled oats and Rumford's Baking Powder.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until brown and crisp.

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. Butter + oatstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + oatstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,548 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as they set in the oven.
Rolled oats
Provide the chewy, hearty body that gives macaroons their texture.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the cookies brown and crisp at the edges.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and aids browning as they bake.
Rumford's baking powder
Releases gas to lift the dough so the macaroons rise slightly.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot oven until brown and crisp. Baking at 400°F sets the eggs and drives browning through sugar caramelization. Pulling them too early leaves them soft, while overbaking makes them dry and hard.

“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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