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Wheat Gems

A batter of milk, eggs, butter, and flours baked in gem irons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Wheat Gems

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the milk, eggs, and melted butter.

  2. Add enough flour to create a batter that is not very stiff.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine Graham flour and white flour.

  4. Mix the flours with sweet milk or water until the batter is thicker than griddle-cake batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease the gem irons and heat them on top of the stove.

  2. Pour the batter into the heated gem irons.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness that help the gems hold their shape as they bake.
Graham flour
Adds wheat flavour and a coarser, more textured crumb to the gems.
White flour
Supplies gluten for structure, giving the gems a lighter, more tender crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and adds moisture and browning from its milk sugars.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the gems rise.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the heated gem irons. Hot, greased irons start the crust setting immediately, so the batter rises and releases cleanly. Cold irons let the batter spread and stick.

“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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