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Dessert

Raised Muffins

A sweet yeast dough muffin made with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, flour, and saleratus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Raised 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and eggs until well combined.

  2. Add the sweet milk, coarse sea salt, and yeast; mix well.

  3. Gradually add flour to form a soft dough, not as stiff as bread.

  4. Let the dough rise until very light.

Shape and bake

  1. Dissolve the saleratus in the milk and add it to the dough; stir thoroughly.

  2. Place the mixture into muffin rings and let them stand until light again.

  3. 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins hold their shape.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Saleratus
Releases gas in the dough, adding further lift and lightness.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until very light. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Rising too short leaves dense muffins, while the second rise after shaping helps them stay light before baking.

“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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