Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Graham Gems
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine sour milk, shortening, molasses, salt, and baking soda.
Stir in Graham flour until mixture is thick enough to drop from a spoon.
Bake
Spoon batter into gem pans, filling them about halfway.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, causing the gems to rise.
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and structure that thickens the batter and sets the crumb.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep color that aids browning.
- Shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the gems moist.
The step that matters
Stir in the Graham flour to the right thickness. The batter must be thick enough to drop from a spoon. Too thin and the gems spread and lose their shape; too much flour makes them dense. Mixing only until combined also avoids overdeveloping gluten, which would toughen the texture.
“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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