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Bran Muffins

A muffin made with bran, flour, sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Bran Muffins

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 ↓

Bran 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the bran and flour together.

  3. In another bowl, combine the sour milk, molasses, and baking soda.

Mix and bake

  1. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

  2. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin.

  3. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

Bran
Adds fiber-rich bulk and a hearty, slightly nutty texture to the muffin crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep flavor that also helps browning.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas, lifting the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Stir the batter until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled. Stopping once the dry ingredients are moistened keeps the texture tender, and the baking soda's rising reaction starts as soon as the wet and dry ingredients meet.

“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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