Name: Graham Flour Muffins
Ingredients: 2 cups buttermilk; 2 eggs; 2 tablespoons butter, softened; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; ¼ teaspoon salt; Graham flour, enough to make a stiff batter

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Graham Flour 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.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, butter, and sugar until well combined.
In another bowl, combine the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until a stiff batter forms.

Bake

Grease small iron pans and ensure they are very hot before pouring in the batter.
Bake until golden brown.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together674 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

Buttermilk: Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the leavening to lift the muffins.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and cream of tartar to release gas, helping the muffins rise.
Cream of tartar: Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to leaven the batter.
Graham flour: Forms the stiff batter and gives the muffins their structure and nutty, coarse texture.

The step that matters

Heat the iron pans before pouring in the batter. A very hot, greased pan starts the crust setting immediately, so the batter rises quickly and releases cleanly instead of sticking or spreading flat.

“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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Graham Flour Muffins