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 ↓
Graham Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Preheat your oven until hot.
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine Graham flour, wheat flour, sour milk, and enough sour cream to fill the cup.
Add baking soda, molasses, and salt to the mixture.
Bake
Pour the mixture into the hot oven and bake until golden.
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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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and the coarse, nutty texture of the muffins.
- Wheat flour
- Adds structure and helps the muffins hold their shape.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda so the muffins rise and stay tender.
- Sour cream
- Adds fat and moisture for a softer crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, depth of flavour, and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Adding baking soda to the acidic batter. Baking soda must meet acid to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the batter. Mixing it in and getting the muffins into the hot oven promptly keeps that lift from fading before the batter sets.
“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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