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Dessert

Bran Muffins

A quick oven-baked muffin made with flour, bran, milk, molasses, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Bran Muffins

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

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

Make the batter

  1. Add the bran, then mix in the milk and molasses.

  2. Beat the mixture thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into muffin pans.

  2. Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 main structure that holds the muffins together as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to release gas, helping the muffins rise and brown.
Bran
Adds fiber-rich bulk and a coarse, hearty texture to the batter.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and supplies moisture for a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and acidity, and helps the baking soda react and brown the crust.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture thoroughly. Thorough beating fully combines the wet and dry ingredients and develops gluten in the flour, which gives the muffins their structure. Because the baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the liquid, the batter should go into the pans promptly after mixing.

“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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