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Dessert

Oatmeal Macaroons

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Macaroons

Why it works: Vanilla and oats are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,532 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and add half of the sugar.

  2. Beat the egg yolks, add the remaining sugar, and combine with the butter mixture.

  3. Add the vanilla or almond extract and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  4. Mix the rolled oats with baking powder and salt, then fold into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto a buttered baking sheet, spacing them two inches apart.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 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.

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. Vanilla + oatstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg whites are beaten stiff and folded in to lighten the batter and help the macaroons hold their shape.
Rolled oats
Provide the bulk and chewy texture that gives the macaroons their body.
Sugar
Sweetens the cookies and helps them brown during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the macaroons rise and lighten slightly.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter, so the macaroons stay light instead of collapsing into dense, flat cookies.

“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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