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Dessert

Graham Gems

A cake made with graham flour, butter, milk, sugar, baking powder, eggs, and salt, baked in buttered pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Gems

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix graham flour, salt, and baking powder together.

  2. Beat the egg.

  3. Add sugar and beat together.

  4. Add milk.

  5. Mix the flour into the egg and milk and beat to a smooth batter.

  6. Add the melted butter.

  7. Beat the eggs very light.

  8. Add the milk and hour alternately until all is used.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat buttered iron gem pans hissing hot.

  2. Half fill with the mixture.

  3. Bake in buttered gem pans in a hot oven.

  4. Bake in a hot oven thirty-five or forty minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as its starch sets when baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the gems rise and become light.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter a smooth, pourable texture.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness in the finished gems.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and supports gentle browning in the baked gems.

The step that matters

Heat the gem pans hissing hot before filling. Batter poured into very hot, buttered pans starts setting immediately on contact, which helps the gems rise quickly and release cleanly. Cool pans let the batter soak in and spread, giving heavier, greasier results.

“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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