Name: Graham, Rye or Wheat Gems
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups graham flour, rye flour, or whole wheat flour; ½ cup white flour; ¼ cup sugar; 1 cup milk; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon shortening

Why it works: Flour and milk 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, Rye or Wheat 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.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, combine the graham flour, white flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
In another bowl, beat the egg and mix in the milk and shortening.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix quickly.

Bake

Pour the batter into hot gem pans and bake until golden.

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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk 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

Graham flour: Provides the main structure and a nutty, coarse texture in the crumb.
White flour: Adds gluten for a lighter structure that holds the rise.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, causing the gems to rise in the oven.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and browning through milk sugars.
Shortening: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.

The step that matters

Mix the wet and dry ingredients quickly. Once liquid meets flour, gluten starts to develop and baking powder begins releasing gas. Overmixing toughens the batter, and waiting lets the rise fade before baking.

“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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Graham, Rye or Wheat Gems