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Oatmeal Gems

A baked oatmeal and flour mixture with eggs and sugar, formed into gem-shaped pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Oatmeal Gems

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 ↓

Oatmeal Gems

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Soak the oatmeal overnight in the sour milk.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the soaked oatmeal, flour, eggs, sugar, and baking soda until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into gem pans.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

  4. Let cool before serving.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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 the baking soda, producing gas that helps the gems rise.
Oatmeal
Soaking softens the oats and gives the gems a hearty, tender body.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the gems together as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking, giving the gems structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release carbon dioxide, lifting the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Mix in the baking soda with the soaked oatmeal. Baking soda needs an acid to react, and the sour milk supplies it. Mixing the batter just until combined and baking promptly keeps the gas bubbles from escaping before the eggs and flour set, so the gems rise properly.

“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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