Name: Wheat Muffins
Ingredients: 1 egg; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon cornmeal; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 2 cups buttermilk; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Wheat Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, beat the egg.

Mix and bake

Add the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, buttermilk, and baking soda. Mix well.
Pour the batter into greased muffin tins.
Bake until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttermilktop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,986 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the muffins.
All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure as its proteins form gluten when mixed with liquid.
Buttermilk: Adds moisture and acidity that works with baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, helping the muffins rise.
Baking powder: Supplies additional leavening gas so the muffins rise in the oven.

“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.