Name: Lavender Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients: ¾ cup sugar; 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; 2 tbsp. Baking powder; ½ tsp. Salt; 1/3 cup vegetable oil; 1 ¼ cups milk; 1 tbsp. Freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 tbsp. Finely grated lemon zest; 1 tsp. Finely chopped dried *culinary lavender (1 tbsp. Fresh); 3 large eggs, beaten; 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

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 ↓

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that sets as the muffins bake.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the muffins rise.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crumb brown during baking.
Vegetable oil: Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and moist.
Milk: Adds moisture and, with lemon juice, gives a slightly tangy, tender batter.

The step that matters

Stir the wet into the dry until just moistened. Stirring too much develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and dense. Lumps left in the batter are fine and help keep the crumb light.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, lavender, egg):

Vanillafits better
Blueberryfits about as well
Lemonthe original
Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, lavender, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Blueberry	1 cup (148g)	84
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Lavender	not in our table	0

Lavender Blueberry Muffins