Name: Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ½ cup hot water; ½ cup butter and lard, mixed; 1 egg; 1 cup fine oatmeal; ½ cup flour

Why it works: Butter and flour 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 Cookies

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 the dough

Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and the butter-lard mixture.
Add the egg and mix well.
Stir in the dissolved baking soda, oatmeal, and flour.

Shape and bake

Roll the dough very thin and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter and lard: Provides fat that creams with sugar to give the cookies tenderness and richness.
Egg: Binds the dough and adds moisture and structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the dough to help it rise and promotes browning.
Sugar: Sweetens the cookies and aids browning and crispness as they bake.
Flour: Gives the dough structure so the cookies hold their shape.
Oatmeal: Adds bulk, chewy texture and a toasty oat flavour to the dough.