Name: Graham Muffins
Ingredients: 2 pounds graham roll dough; 2 ounces butter; 2 ounces molasses; ½ cup milk; 2 whole eggs; 2 egg yolks

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Graham Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

Warm the graham roll dough and butter together in a pan.
Add the molasses, milk, whole eggs, and egg yolks to the mixture.
Beat the mixture for about 5 minutes.

Fill, rise and bake

Grease muffin rings or gem pans and fill them halfway with the batter.
Let the muffins rise for 30 minutes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.
Brush the tops with butter or hot water before serving.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Molasses + milktop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,243 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,123 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Graham roll dough: Forms the main body of the muffins, giving them their structure and crumb.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, softening the dough and contributing flavor and tenderness.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and moisture, and helps the crumb brown.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
Whole eggs: Add structure and set the crumb as the muffins bake.
Egg yolks: Add richness, fat, and tenderness, and help bind the batter.

“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.