Name: Oatmeal Macaeooists
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup sugar; 2 eggs; 2 cups rolled oats; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon vanilla

Why it works: Oats and vanilla 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 Macaeooists

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).

Make the dough

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Stir in the rolled oats, salt, baking powder, and vanilla.

Bake

Drop small amounts of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.
Bake until lightly golden, then remove from the oven.

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.

Oats + vanillatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,532 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + oatstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,939 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,050 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and vanilla 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

Butter: Adds fat that enriches flavor and gives the cookies a tender texture.
Sugar: Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure as they set during baking.
Rolled oats: Provide the main body and chewy texture of the macaroons.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the macaroons rise and lighten.

“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.