Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Bran Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda, then mix in the bran.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, combine the sweetener, melted shortening, and 1½ cups of sour milk.
Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until just combined.
Fold in the raisins or nuts, dusted with a little flour.
Add more sour milk if needed to achieve a batter that drops from a spoon but is not too runny.
Bake
Spoon the batter into greased muffin pans and bake for about 30 minutes.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + raisintop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk and flour 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the muffin together as it bakes.
- Sour milk
- Moistens the batter and, with baking soda, reacts to help the muffins rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Sweetener
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the muffins moist and browned.
- Melted shortening
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the muffins moist.
- Clean bran
- Adds fibre and absorbs liquid, giving the muffins a hearty texture.
The step that matters
Adding the sour milk to the batter. Batter that is too thick makes dense muffins, while too much liquid makes them flat and gummy. Add the milk gradually and stop when the batter drops from a spoon but still holds its shape.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Blueberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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