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Dessert

Cream Corn Meal Gems

A baked cornmeal cake made with cream, flour, baking powder, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Corn Meal 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

  1. Mix and sift the dry ingredients.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add the cream and the beaten egg, then beat well.

Bake

  1. Bake in buttered gem cups for 25 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

Variation

  1. For a plainer gem, substitute milk for cream and add 1 tablespoon melted butter.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Corn meal
Gives the gems their coarse, grainy texture and characteristic corn flavour.
Flour
Provides the main structure so the gems hold their shape after baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, producing a more tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the gems rise and turn light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Add the cream and egg gradually. Adding the liquid slowly to the dry ingredients lets the flour and meal absorb it evenly, which prevents lumps. Beating well then develops a smooth batter that bakes into an even, tender gem.

“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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