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Bread

French Muffins

A quick bread made with flour, baking powder, salt, butter, eggs, honey, and milk or thin cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

French Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Rub in the cold butter until the mixture resembles crumbs.

  4. Add the beaten eggs and honey, mixing well.

  5. Gradually stir in the milk or cream to form a batter.

Bake

  1. Grease a sponge cake tin and fill it half full with the batter.

  2. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes 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. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + honeytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,327 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the muffin crumb as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the muffins rise and become light.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set when baked.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture and helps the crust brown.
Milk or thin cream
Hydrates the flour and gives the batter its liquid and softness.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich flavour.

The step that matters

Filling the tin half full. Batter needs room to rise when baking powder releases gas in the oven. Overfilling can make the muffins spill or bake unevenly, while underfilling leaves them flat.

“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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