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
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the egg and sour milk, mixing well.
Stir in the baking soda and salt.
Gradually add graham flour until the batter is as thick as for griddle cakes.
Bake
Pour the batter into buttered gem tins.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Graham flour
- Forms the bulk of the batter, giving the gems their structure and nutty, coarse texture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as the gems set in the oven.
- Sour milk
- Provides liquid and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the gems rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps the gems brown at the edges.
The step that matters
Gradually add graham flour until the batter is as thick as for griddle cakes. Graham flour absorbs liquid at different rates, so adding it slowly lets you judge consistency. Too much flour makes dense gems, while too little makes them spread and lose their 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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