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Dessert

Entire Wheat or Graham Muffins

A simple muffin made with whole wheat or Graham flour, white flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, and melted shortening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Entire Wheat or Graham 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. Sift together the entire wheat flour, white flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Beat the egg until very light, then add it along with the milk to the dry mixture.

  3. Add the melted shortening, mix well, and beat thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased muffin or gem pans.

  2. Bake in a preheated 400°F (200°C) oven for about 25 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.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Entire wheat or graham flour
Provides structure and a nutty, hearty texture in place of some white flour.
White flour
Builds the main structure and gives the muffins a lighter crumb.
Egg
Adds structure, richness, and helps bind the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the muffins rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar, giving the batter its liquid base.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist, soft crumb.

The step that matters

Beat the egg until very light. Whipping the egg traps air that adds lift and lightness to the batter. Mixing the batter only until combined, after the dry and wet parts meet, keeps gluten development low so the muffins stay tender.

“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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