Name: Oat Meal Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup lard; 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; 6 teaspoons milk; 2 cups flour; 2 cups oatmeal; 1 cup chopped raisins or nuts; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Oat Meal 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, cream together the lard and sugar.
Beat in the eggs and milk until well combined.
Stir in the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, and salt until mixed.
Fold in the chopped raisins or nuts.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,155 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Lard: Provides fat that makes the cookies tender and helps them spread.
Sugar: Creaming with the fat adds sweetness and helps give a crisp, golden edge.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add structure and moisture to the cookies.
Flour: Forms the main structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Oatmeal: Adds chewy texture and a toasty, nutty flavour.
Baking soda: Reacts with the dough to help the cookies rise and brown.