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 ↓
Oatmeal Gems
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Preheat the gem pans until hot and grease them well.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine the cooked oatmeal, sweet milk, eggs, melted butter, and baking powder.
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a stiff batter.
Spoon the batter into the prepared gem pans.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden brown.
Serve warm.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set.
- Flour
- Gives the stiff batter body so the cakes hold their shape.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that helps the cakes rise and lighten.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps browning.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and oatmeal.
The step that matters
Gradually add flour until the mixture forms a stiff batter. Too much flour makes the cakes dense and dry, while too little leaves them loose and unable to hold shape. Adding it gradually lets you judge the batter's consistency.
“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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