Name: Parker House Corn Meal Gems
Ingredients: one cup of flour; one cup of yellow corn meal; two teaspoonfuls baking powder; one-half teaspoonful of salt; one-fourth cup of butter; one cup of milk; a cup of sugar; three well beaten eggs; 26 rocky mountain cook book

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 ↓

Parker House Corn Meal Gems

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

Sift together one cup of flour, one cup of yellow corn meal, two teaspoonfuls baking powder, and one-half teaspoonful of salt.
Cream one-fourth cup of butter.
Add gradually half a cup of sugar, then three well beaten eggs and one cup of milk.

Bake

Bake in buttered gem pans in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

910Calories

30 gProtein

27 gFat

137 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Salt	1 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 Norton, Caroline Trask. 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.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Flour: Provides the main structure that holds the gems together as they bake.
Yellow corn meal: Adds a coarse, grainy texture and a mild corn flavor.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the gems rise and turn light.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, setting as the gems bake.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the gems brown at the edges.

“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.