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Dessert

Bran Muffins

A muffin made with bran, eggs, buttermilk, butter, walnuts, baking soda, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Bran Muffins

Why it works: Butter and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,832 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bran Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the bran and butter with the egg yolks.

  2. In another bowl, combine buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and walnuts.

  3. Add the second mixture to the first and stir well.

  4. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into muffin pans and bake for 30-35 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. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + buttermilktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Buttermilk + walnuttop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together196 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind and enrich the batter, while the beaten whites folded in add lift and airiness.
Bran
Provides the bulk and structure of the muffin, absorbing liquid as it bakes.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and tang, and reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the muffins rise.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives the muffins lift. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates this foam, leaving dense muffins, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, buttermilk):

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peasfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, buttermilk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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