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English Muffins

English muffins are small, round breads baked in rings and served toasted with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

English Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

  2. Mix in the milk to form a firm batter.

Cook the muffins

  1. Place muffin rings on a well-greased griddle, heated evenly, and fill them halfway.

  2. When the batter rises to the top of the rings, gently turn them with a cake turner.

  3. Bake until they are a light golden color, not too brown.

  4. Once cooked, split them in half, toast lightly, butter well, and serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the muffins together as they rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, lifting the batter so the muffins rise and become airy.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to form the batter and adds moisture and tenderness.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness and helps the surface brown to a light golden color.

The step that matters

Turning the muffins at the right moment. Turn them once the batter has risen to the top of the rings, so the set top is firm enough to hold its shape. Turning too early can deflate the batter, while waiting too long can overcook the bottom and make the 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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