Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Water 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.
Prepare the batter
In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.
Add warm water gradually to create a thick batter.
Beat the batter with a spoon until smooth.
Let the batter rise for 8 hours.
Cook the muffins
Grease muffin rings with butter.
Preheat a griddle as you would for buckwheat cakes.
Place the rings on the griddle and fill them half full with batter.
Bake for about 5 minutes on the griddle, then turn them with the rings, or bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that form the structure of the muffins.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour to form a thick batter that cooks into a moist crumb.
The step that matters
Let the batter rise for 8 hours. This long rest lets fermentation and hydration develop the batter, which gives the muffins their light, airy texture. Skipping or shortening it leaves the muffins denser.
“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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