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Rye Gems
1 cup rye meal, 1 cup rye flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 3 tsp. Royal baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. melted fat.
— Mrs. H. P. Frost
A bare ingredient list of the kind common in church cookbooks, where the method was assumed. Mix, fill hot greased pans, bake hot — the only real questions are the pans and the oven, neither of which the original bothers to name.
- What a gem is"Gems" are muffins baked in cast-iron gem pans — heavy shallow-cupped pans that were greased and preheated so the batter set instantly on contact. A standard 12-cup muffin tin works; if you own cast iron, heat it in the oven, grease it, then fill it for a crisper base.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. A hot oven, roughly 400-425F, suits gems. Twelve take roughly 15 to 20 minutes; they are done when a skewer comes out clean and the tops have cracked.
- Rye meal vs. rye flourTwo different products, and the recipe wants both. Rye meal is coarsely ground whole rye — closest modern equivalents are dark or pumpernickel rye flour, or medium rye. Rye flour here means the lighter, finer sifted grade. Using all light rye gives a noticeably softer, blander gem.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh unsoured whole milk, specified to distinguish it from the buttermilk or sour milk that would have called for soda instead of baking powder.
- Melted fatUnspecified; lard, drippings or butter would all serve. Melted butter or a neutral oil is fine; drippings give a more savory result.
- Baking powderThree teaspoons for two cups of flour is high by modern standards but appropriate — rye has little gluten and needs the extra lift. The brand name is period advertising, not a requirement; any double-acting baking powder works. Mix and bake promptly rather than letting the batter stand.
- Handling the batterStir only until the dry flour disappears. Overworked rye batter can turn sticky, and the gems bake heavier.
- YieldAbout 12 standard muffins, or 8 or 9 in larger gem cups. Best eaten warm, the day they are made.
Rye was a staple grain across northern Europe and, in America, in regions with cool climates and poorer soils — New England ate rye long after wheat became affordable elsewhere, in brown bread, rye-and-Indian loaves, and quick breads like this one. "Gem" as a name for a muffin is tied to the cast-iron gem pan, sold widely in the second half of the nineteenth century and still standard equipment when this book was compiled. Philathea cookbooks were fundraising collections gathered from the women of Philathea Bible classes, an adult Sunday-school movement that spread through Baptist and other Protestant churches in the early twentieth century; the format explains the recipe's brevity and the signature at the end. Contributors were writing for neighbors who already knew how hot a gem oven should be, and the attribution — Mrs. H. P. Frost, named by her husband's initials, as was the convention — served as both credit and endorsement.