Name: Graham Rolls in Gem Pan
Ingredients: 2 cups graham flour, heaping and sifted; ⅓ cup all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1 heaping teaspoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 cup milk; 1 egg, beaten; 2 teaspoons butter, melted

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Graham Rolls in Gem Pan

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

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and butter the gem pans well.

Make the batter

Sift the graham flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.
Gradually stir in the milk, then add the beaten egg.
Finally, mix in the melted butter.

Bake

Pour the batter into the prepared gem pans and bake 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.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 and butter 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

Graham flour: Provides the main structure and the nutty, wholesome flavour of the roll.
All-purpose flour: Adds gluten to lighten the crumb and help the rolls hold their shape.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the rolls rise in the oven.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets.
Milk: Hydrates the flours and adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
Butter: Adds fat for richness, softness and a golden colour on the crust.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the prepared gem pans and bake until golden.. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid, so the batter should go into the hot pans promptly. Bake until golden so the rolls are set and cooked through rather than pale and doughy inside.

“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 in Gem Pan