Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Dinner Menu
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stir 4 even tea cups of good Graham flour into 1 quart of sweet milk.
Heat the cast iron gem pans until they sizzle sharply when greased.
Have the oven very hot.
Bake
Fill the pans as full as you can without running over.
Put the pans in the oven immediately.
Bake about 15 minutes, until they are a nice brown.
If the pans are small and the oven very hot, a shorter baking time may suffice.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
| Tea | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Vinegar + teatop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together175 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Tea + flourtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together449 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Vinegar + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,652 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Graham flour
- Provides the structure that holds the gems together as the batter sets.
- Sweet milk (in the method)
- Supplies the moisture that turns the flour into batter and helps the gems brown.
The step that matters
Heat the pans until they sizzle, then bake immediately. Hot greased pans start the crust setting at once when batter hits them, helping the gems rise and release cleanly. Cold pans or a delay before the oven let the batter soak in and bake dense and sticky.
“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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