Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Oatmeal Gems
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Soak the oatmeal in water overnight.
In the morning, add sour milk, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt.
Mix in enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Bake
Bake in gem pans at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
If they are moist and sticky, add more flour next time.
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Soaking softens the oats and adds body and a hearty texture to the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the gems and adds tenderness.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the gems rise.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the gems brown in the oven.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the batter stays stiff enough to hold its shape when baked.
The step that matters
Mix in enough flour to create a stiff batter. A stiff batter holds its shape in the gem pans. If the batter is too wet, the gems spread, stay moist and sticky, and do not set properly in the oven.
“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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