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Gems for Breakfast
Mrs. Carson.
One and a-half cups of sweet milk, two cups of flour, one cup of corn meal, two eggs, butter the size of an egg, one tablespoon of Cook's Friend baking powder mixed dry in the flour; bake in small tins, and cook quarter of an hour in a quick oven.
A plain cornmeal muffin batter, baked in cast-iron gem pans. The proportions are sound; only the vessel, the leavening brand and the oven description need translating.
- Gem pans"Small tins" means a gem pan — a heavy cast-iron tray of shallow oval or round cups, an early relative of the muffin tin. A standard 12-cup muffin pan works; grease it well, and note that period practice was to heat the iron pan before the batter went in, which helped give gems their crisp shell.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-425F. At that heat a quarter of an hour is about right for gem-sized cups; check at 12 minutes, as modern pans are thinner than iron and brown faster.
- Cook's Friend baking powderA Canadian brand sold when this book was compiled. Substitute an equal amount of any modern double-acting baking powder — one tablespoon for the three cups of flour and meal here.
- Sweet milkSimply fresh milk, as distinct from the sour milk or buttermilk used with saleratus. Whole milk gives the closest result.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. Melt it and add it with the milk and beaten eggs.
- Corn mealNineteenth-century corn meal was generally ground more coarsely than most supermarket grades; the recipe does not specify a colour. A medium or stone-ground meal gives the intended texture; fine cornmeal makes a softer, cakier gem.
- Method and yieldMix the leavening dry through the flour and cornmeal, as instructed, then stir in the liquids only until combined — overworking makes the crumb tough. Expect about a dozen gems, best eaten hot from the pan.
"Gems" were a common North American breakfast quick bread of the 1870s and 80s, generally said to take their name from the cast-iron gem pan rather than from any particular batter, though which came first is not settled; cookbooks of the era print dozens of variants — wheat gems, graham gems, rye gems, corn gems. They belong to the first generation of baking-powder cookery: chemical leavening had become cheap and reliable enough by the 1870s that a hot bread could be on the table twenty minutes after the cook decided to make it, without yeast, sponge or waiting. The Home Cook Book was compiled in Toronto in 1877 from contributions by named local women, which is why the page carries Mrs. Carson's name and a brand endorsement: Cook's Friend was a Canadian baking powder, and its appearance here is a small record of what was actually on a Toronto pantry shelf rather than a generic instruction.