Name: Graham Rolls Made with Cream
Ingredients: 1½ cups graham flour; ½ cup white flour; ¼ cup brown sugar; 2 eggs; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; cream (enough to make a stiff batter)

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Graham Rolls Made with Cream

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the graham flour, white flour, brown sugar, eggs, salt, and baking powder.
Add cream gradually until you achieve a stiff batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into heated gem pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Graham flour: Provides the wholesome base and body of the rolls, with a nutty, coarse texture.
White flour: Adds gluten-forming structure so the rolls hold their shape.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the oven, helping the rolls rise and become light.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Add cream gradually until the batter is stiff. Adding cream slowly lets you judge the flour's absorption and stop at a stiff batter. Too much liquid thins the batter, so the rolls spread and bake up dense rather than holding a domed shape.

“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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Graham Rolls Made with Cream