Name: Bread Gems
Ingredients: 1 pint bread crumbs; 2 cups sweet milk; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; ¼ cup melted butter; 2 eggs, beaten

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread 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 the batter

Soak the bread crumbs and rub them through a colander to measure 1 pint.
In a bowl, combine the soaked bread crumbs, sweet milk, flour, baking powder, melted butter, and beaten eggs. Mix until well combined.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into gem pans.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
Serve warm, especially with fresh fish for breakfast.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

Bread crumbs: Provide the bulk and tender crumb structure of the cake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise in the oven.
All-purpose flour: Adds starch that sets during baking, giving the cakes body and structure.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Sweet milk: Moistens the batter and hydrates the flour and crumbs.

“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.