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Dessert

Apple Gems

Apple Gems are baked apple batter cakes made with apples, molasses, cornmeal, flour, egg, baking soda, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Apple 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Chop the sour apples very fine.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, stir together the chopped apples, beaten egg, molasses, cornmeal, and sifted flour.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in warm water and add it to the mixture, using enough water to thin the batter.

Bake

  1. Grease gem pans with butter and pour the batter into them.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  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. 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

Sour apples
Provide moisture, tartness and body that balances the sweet molasses.
Beaten egg
Binds the batter and helps it set firm as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and a rich flavour.
Cornmeal
Gives the gems a coarse, crumbly texture and structure.
Sifted flour
Provides structure so the batter holds its shape when baked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apples and molasses to lighten the batter.

The step that matters

Thinning the batter with warm water. Water must be added in enough quantity to thin the batter so it fills the gem pans evenly. Too thick a batter bakes dense, while too thin a batter may spread and lose its shape.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, molasses, flour, butter):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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