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Dessert

Oatmeal Muffins

A baked muffin made with oatmeal, flour, milk, lard, eggs, salt, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Oatmeal Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the oatmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, milk, lard, and eggs into a smooth batter that is thinner than cupcake batter.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill muffin rings two-thirds full with the batter.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Milk + eggtop 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
Forms the main structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking to add structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the muffins rise and become light.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its thin texture.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes to a soft texture.
Oatmeal
Adds a hearty, slightly chewy texture and absorbs some of the liquid.

The step that matters

Fill muffin rings two-thirds full with the batter. Leaving room above the batter lets the muffins rise in the oven without overflowing or baking into dense tops.

“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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