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Dessert

Graham Gems

A quick baked cookie made with sour or buttermilk, baking soda, salt, egg, molasses, and Graham flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Graham Gems

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick 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) and grease gem pans.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the sour or buttermilk, baking soda, and salt.

  2. Beat in the egg and molasses.

  3. Add enough Graham flour to create a stiff batter. Mix thoroughly and fill the hot gem pans.

Bake

  1. Bake for 15 minutes until golden.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Buttermilk + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour 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

Sour or buttermilk
Provides acidity that reacts with the baking soda to make the gems rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to produce gas, lightening the batter.
Egg
Adds structure and helps bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep color to the gems.
Graham flour
Forms the main body of the batter, giving the gems their structure and nutty texture.

The step that matters

Fill the hot gem pans. Filling preheated, greased pans and baking promptly lets the batter set quickly on contact with heat, helping the gems rise and release cleanly. Letting the batter sit lets the baking soda's gas escape before baking.

“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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