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 ↓
Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix the flour, warm milk, water, yeast, and salt together.
Stir the mixture for 15 minutes.
Strain the mixture into the flour.
Mix the dough well and let it rise for 1 hour.
Shape and warm
Roll the dough into small balls and cover with a flannel to keep warm.
Shape the balls into muffins and place them on tins.
Bake
Bake until the bottoms change color.
Turn the muffins and bake the other side.
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.
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough as its proteins develop into gluten.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and helps the browning of the crust.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise for 1 hour. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas to leaven the dough. Rising too short leaves the muffins dense, while the dough must be kept warm so the yeast stays active.
“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.
More muffins recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.