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Dessert

Oatmeal Muffins

A quick baked muffin made with rolled oats, milk, flour, sugar, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,119 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Oatmeal Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine rolled oats and scalded milk; let stand for 30 minutes.

  2. Add sugar, salt, and melted fat to the oat mixture.

  3. Sift flour with baking powder and mix into the ingredients.

  4. Add the well beaten egg and mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into well greased muffin tins.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 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. Oats + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,119 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Milk and flour 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

Rolled oats
Soak in hot milk to soften and add a hearty, chewy texture to the muffins.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the muffin crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the muffins rise and become light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Melted fat
Adds moisture and tenderness, coating flour particles to soften the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the muffins brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Mixing in the flour and baking powder. Overmixing once the flour is added develops gluten and can make the muffins tough and dense. Mix only until the ingredients are combined, and sift the flour with the baking powder so the leavening spreads evenly through the batter.

“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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