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 ↓
Geaham Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Preheat the oven until hot.
Combine the Graham flour and wheat flour in a bowl.
Make and bake
Add the sour milk and sour cream.
Mix in the baking soda, molasses, and salt to taste.
Pour the mixture into the hot baking irons and bake.
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.
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,429 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Graham flour
- Provides the bulk and the coarse, hearty structure of the muffins.
- Wheat flour
- Adds gluten to support the batter and give the muffins a lighter crumb.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the muffins rise.
- Sour cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving a tender, richer crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, depth of flavour and moisture, and helps browning.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture into the hot baking irons and bake.. The batter must go into a hot oven straight away, because the baking soda starts reacting with the acid as soon as it is mixed. Heat sets the structure before the gas escapes, so the muffins rise well and stay light.
“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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