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Barley Muffins

Barley muffins made with barley meal, white flour, sugar, milk, egg, shortening, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Barley Muffins

Why it works: Barley and flour work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 582 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Barley Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

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

  2. Sift together the barley meal, white flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

  3. In a separate bowl, melt the shortening and beat in the egg and milk.

Mix and bake

  1. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix briskly.

  2. Pour the batter into muffin pans and bake for 15 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.

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. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Barley + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Barley meal
Provides the distinctive flavor and a tender, coarse crumb in the muffins.
White flour
Forms the main structure as its gluten traps gas and holds the muffin shape.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets during baking.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and starches, and helps browning in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the muffins to rise.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix briskly. Mixing briskly develops gluten in the white flour, which can make muffins tough. Brisk mixing is still needed to fully combine the batter and activate the baking powder, so the goal is to stop once the ingredients are just combined.

“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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