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Dessert

Wheaten Gems

A light cake made with flour, baking powder, eggs, milk or cream, butter, and egg whites, baked in gem-shaped pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Wheaten 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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix baking powder and salt into the flour.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine beaten egg yolks, sweet milk or cream, and melted butter.

  2. Add the flour mixture and beat well.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into gem pans and bake immediately.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Provides the main structure of the gems as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the gems rise and become light.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter while adding moisture.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that lifts the batter and makes it lighter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour in the crumb.
Sweet milk or cream
Supplies liquid to hydrate the flour and adds moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only when they are beaten and kept intact. Vigorous stirring deflates them and removes the lift they give, so the gems turn out denser. Baking soon after mixing also matters, because baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it gets wet.

“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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