Name: Oatmeal Crisps
Ingredients: ½ cup sugar; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ teaspoon baking powder; 1 heaping cup dry oatmeal; 1 egg

Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Oatmeal Crisps

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; 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 bowl, mix the butter and sugar until creamy.
Add the egg and mix well.
Combine the oatmeal and baking powder, then add to the mixture.
Flour your hands and form the mixture into small cakes.

Bake

Place the cakes on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 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.

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.

Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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

Butter: Adds fat that makes the mixture creamy and tender once combined with sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the crisps and creams with butter to lighten the texture.
Egg: Binds the mixture together so the cakes hold their shape.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking to lift the cakes and give a lighter crumb.
Oatmeal: Provides the bulk and the chewy, toasty structure of the crisps.

“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.