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Oatmeal Buns

A baked bun made with oatmeal, flour, sugar, fat, egg, baking powder, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Oatmeal Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the fat with a wooden spoon.

  2. Beat the egg and part of the milk together, then gradually add it to the creamed fat along with the other ingredients (except the baking powder), mixing to form a moist mixture. Beat well.

  3. Let it sit for as long as possible to allow the oatmeal to swell.

  4. Add the baking powder and more milk if necessary to achieve a stiff mixture.

Bake

  1. Spoon the mixture into greased patty pans.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Oatmeal
Absorbs liquid and swells during resting, giving the buns a hearty, tender body.
Fat (dripping, lard, or butter)
Creamed with the batter, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the buns rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the buns together as they set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture rest. Oatmeal needs time to absorb liquid and swell. Baking before it has rested can leave a gritty texture and a batter that is too loose to hold its shape.

“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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