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Bran Muffins for Luncheon

A quick muffin made with bran, nuts, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bran Muffins for Luncheon

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the shortening and sugar together, then add the egg and re-cream the mixture.

  2. Stir in the sweet milk.

  3. In a separate bowl, sift together the white flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.

  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix well.

  5. Fold in the chopped nuts and bran.

Bake

  1. Bake in greased muffin tins at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the muffin and carries flavor through the batter.
Sugar
Creamed with the fat to add sweetness and help browning in the oven.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during baking.
White flour
Provides the main structure that holds the muffin together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the muffins rise and become light.
Bran
Adds fiber-rich bulk that absorbs liquid and gives the muffins a coarser texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the nuts and bran. Mix only until the dry ingredients are just combined and fold gently. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough, and bran absorbs liquid so it should be evenly distributed without deflating the batter.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Milletfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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