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Dessert

Raised Graham Muffins

A muffin made with graham meal, white flour, milk, molasses, yeast, salt, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Raised Graham Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the Graham meal, white flour, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Scald the milk until it is warm but not boiling, then pour it into the center of the dry ingredients.

  3. Dissolve the yeast and add it along with the molasses to the mixture.

  4. Beat the mixture thoroughly until it forms a batter dough.

Rise and bake

  1. Cover and let it rise overnight in a warm place (about 65°F or 18°C).

  2. In the morning, beat the batter again and let it rise once more.

  3. Before baking, dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of warm water and mix it into the batter.

  4. Pour the batter into well-buttered muffin tins or gem pans.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown, which may take longer than white muffins.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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 meal
Provides the coarse, nutty body and structure of the muffin crumb.
White flour
Adds gluten-forming structure so the muffins hold their shape.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, giving the muffins their airy texture.
Porto rico molasses
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and deep color to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to add lift and help browning.

The step that matters

Overnight rise in a warm place. Yeast activity drives the rise, and the batter needs a steady warm temperature to ferment properly. Too cold slows fermentation, while overheating can kill the yeast and leave the muffins dense.

“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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