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Bran Muffins with Baking Powder

A quick baked muffin made with bran, flour, baking powder, sweet milk, and sweetening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bran Muffins with Baking Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease muffin pans.

  2. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  3. Blend in the bran.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the sweet milk, beaten egg, sweetening, and melted shortening.

  2. Combine the wet and dry ingredients to form a thick but moist batter.

Bake

  1. Fill the muffin pans and bake for about 30 minutes.

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they set.
Bran
Adds fibre and a hearty texture, and absorbs liquid in the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps the muffins set with structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the muffins rise in the oven.
Sweet milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and bran into a batter.
Shortening
Adds fat, giving the muffins tenderness and a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients to form a thick but moist batter. Mixing only until combined keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make muffins tough and dense. Stop once no dry flour streaks remain.

“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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