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 Cakes
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix the oatmeal, flour, and baking soda.
In another bowl, cream the shortening and sugar together.
Make and bake
Combine the dry ingredients with the creamed mixture.
Add water gradually until the batter is very thin.
Cut out shapes with a biscuit cutter and place on a baking sheet.
Bake until golden.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Oatmeal
- Provides bulk and a hearty, chewy texture in the cakes.
- Flour
- Gives the cakes structure so they hold their cut shapes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts to lighten the dough and help it rise and brown.
- Shortening
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cakes and helps them brown as they bake.
The step that matters
Adding water gradually. The batter must be thin but not runny. Adding water slowly lets you stop once it reaches the right consistency, since too much water makes the dough spread and bake up flat or soggy.
“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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