Name: Whole Wheat Flour Muffins
Ingredients: 1 pint whole wheat flour; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder; 1 tablespoon sugar (optional); 1 egg; 2 tablespoons melted butter; ½ pint sweet milk

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Flour Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar if desired.
Break the egg into the mixture and add the melted butter.
Pour in the sweet milk and stir just enough to combine; do not overmix.
Drop the batter into buttered muffin pans.

Bake

Bake for 30 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,002 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Whole wheat flour: Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Baking powder: Releases gas when heated, helping the muffins rise and become light.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Melted butter: Adds fat for tenderness and moisture in the finished muffins.
Sweet milk: Hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar, forming the batter's liquid base.

The step that matters

Stir just enough to combine. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled rather than tender. Stop stirring once the dry flour is just moistened; a few lumps are fine.

“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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Whole Wheat Flour Muffins