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Dessert

Wheat Gems

A small cake made with flour, milk, eggs, salt, and butter, baked in gem pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Wheat Gems

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour with the salt.

  2. Stir the milk in smoothly.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately until well combined.

  4. Stir the yolks into the milk and flour mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Add the melted butter and mix well.

Bake

  1. Half fill the gem pans and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 25 minutes, or 45 minutes if using earthen cups.

  2. Ensure they are thoroughly baked to prevent collapsing when removed from the oven.

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

Eggs
Whites trapped by folding add lift, and yolks add richness and structure as they set.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the batter into the cake's structure.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until thoroughly done. If the centre is underbaked, the set structure is weak and the cakes can collapse when removed from the oven. Baking until fully set keeps the cakes firm.

“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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