Name: Muffins Without Eggs
Ingredients: 1 quart buttermilk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt; flour (enough to make a stiff batter); 2 to 3 tablespoons sour cream (optional)

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Muffins Without Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 quart buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
flour (enough to make a stiff batter)
2 to 3 tablespoons sour cream (optional)

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 batter

Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.
Add salt and enough flour to create a stiff batter.

Bake

Drop the batter into hot greased pans.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together674 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk: Its acidity reacts with the baking soda and it adds moisture and a tangy flavour.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the muffins rise.
Flour: Provides the structure that sets the muffins as they bake.

The step that matters

Drop the batter into hot greased pans. Baking soda and acidic buttermilk begin releasing gas as soon as they are mixed, so the batter should go into the hot pans promptly to rise well rather than sitting and losing lift.

“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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Muffins Without Eggs