Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Cream the butter and lard with the sugar.
Add the well-beaten yolks of the eggs, sour cream, chopped nuts, oatmeal, and salt.
Stir in the dissolved baking soda and the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into small flat cakes using floured hands.
Place the cakes on buttered baking tins.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nuts + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter and flour 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
- Eggs
- Yolks bind the dough and enrich it, while whipped whites lighten its texture.
- Baking soda
- Dissolved in hot water, it reacts to lift the dough and promote spreading and browning.
- Butter and lard
- Fat gives the cookies tenderness and a rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown and crisp at the edges.
- Oatmeal
- Provides the body and chewy, hearty texture that defines the cookie.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and mild acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
The step that matters
Chill the dough before shaping. The dough is soft from fat and sugar; chilling firms the fat so the cakes hold their shape and spread less in the oven.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, egg, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Macadamia nutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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