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Dessert

Graham Muffins

A quick muffin made with graham flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, eggs, and milk.

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

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Graham Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine graham flour, sugar, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, mix all-purpose flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar, then sift into the graham flour mixture.

  3. Mix thoroughly while dry, then add beaten eggs and milk.

Bake

  1. Fill muffin pans about two-thirds full.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°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.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 flour
Forms the main structure and gives the muffins their hearty, nutty texture.
All-purpose flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the muffins hold their shape.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the mix to produce gas that makes the muffins rise.
Cream of tartar
Acid that reacts with baking soda to help the muffins rise and stay light.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flours to form a batter.

The step that matters

Mix thoroughly while dry, then add eggs and milk. Blending the leavening evenly through the dry flours before adding liquid ensures even rising. Overmixing once liquid is added develops gluten, which can make muffins tough.

“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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