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Dessert

Whole Wheat and Rye Huffins

A muffin made with whole wheat and rye flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, egg, milk, and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and rye match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Whole Wheat and Rye Huffins

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift together the whole wheat flour, rye flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg lightly and mix in the milk.

  2. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

  3. Add the melted butter and mix until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin and bake for 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 + ryetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole wheat flour
Provides structure and a nutty, hearty texture to the muffin crumb.
Rye flour
Adds a dense, earthy flavour and tender but sturdy crumb structure.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the muffin structure as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter so the muffins rise in the oven.
Milk
Hydrates the flours and adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness, moisture and flavour in the finished muffins.

The step that matters

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mixing only until combined keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten in the wheat flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled rather than 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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