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Graham Gems
1 1/2 pints Graham flour, 1/2 pint Indian corn meal, 1 teaspoonful salt, 2 teaspoonfuls baking-powder, 1 1/4 pints milk. Sift together Graham flour, corn meal, salt, and powder. Add the milk, and mix into a moderately stiff batter. Half fill cold gem-pans, well greased. Bake in a solid hot oven ten to twelve minutes.
A plain whole-grain quick bread from the era when cast-iron gem pans were standard equipment. The batter is simple; the heat of the pan is what makes or breaks it.
- Measures by volumeA pint here is a measuring pint, 2 cups. That gives 3 cups Graham flour, 1 cup cornmeal, and 2 1/2 cups milk.
- Graham flourCoarse whole-wheat flour milled with the bran and germ left in. Modern stone-ground whole wheat is the closest thing; regular whole-wheat flour works but gives a smoother crumb than intended.
- Indian corn mealSimply cornmeal, the old term distinguishing maize from other grains. Medium grind, yellow or white, is right; do not substitute cornflour or masa.
- Oven temperatureThe recipe gives no figure. A "solid hot oven" in period usage is generally read as somewhere in the region of 400-450F, held steady, with no door-opening in the first several minutes.
- TimingTen to twelve minutes assumes small, shallow iron gem cups. In a standard modern muffin tin expect 15-20 minutes, until the tops are set and a tester comes out clean.
- Leavening is light by modern standardsTwo teaspoons of baking powder for four cups of dry ingredients is roughly half what a present-day muffin recipe uses. The result is dense and close-grained on purpose, closer to a hearth bread than a cake.
- Yield and servingThe recipe does not say; the quantity of batter suggests rather more than a dozen small gems. They are best split and buttered straight from the pan; whole-grain quick breads with this little fat and no sugar go dry quickly.