Name: Graham Flour Muffins
Ingredients: 2 cups buttermilk; 2 eggs; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; 2 tablespoons sugar; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 2 teaspoons cream of tartar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 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 the oven to 400°F (200°C) and heat small iron pans.

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix buttermilk, eggs, butter, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
Add flour gradually until a stiff batter forms.

Bake

Pour the batter into the hot pans and bake 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.

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 acidity that reacts with the baking soda so the muffins rise and stay tender.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and cream of tartar to release gas, lifting the muffins.
Cream of tartar: Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to leaven the batter and brighten flavor.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
Flour: Forms the batter's structure as it gathers gluten and sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the hot pans. Hot pans start the crust setting immediately, so the batter begins to rise quickly and forms a browned edge. Cold pans slow the rise and can make the muffins dense and pale.

“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