Name: Entire Wheat Muffins
Ingredients: 3 eggs; 1 cup milk; 1 tablespoon butter, melted; 1 tablespoon sugar; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder; Flour, enough to make a batter

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Entire Wheat 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

Beat the eggs with the milk.
Mix in the melted butter, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Add enough flour to create a batter.

Bake and finish

Bake in large round rings at 400°F (200°C).
When nearly done, brush sweet milk over the top of each muffin.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs: Bind the batter and set during baking to give the muffins structure.
Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the muffins their body.
Baking powder: Releases gas when heated, helping the muffins rise.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps the batter come together.
Butter: Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the tops brown.

The step that matters

Add enough flour to create a batter. Stirring in flour until just combined keeps the batter smooth and tender. Adding too much flour makes the batter stiff and the muffins dense and dry, while too little leaves them flat and fragile.

“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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Entire Wheat Muffins