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Bread

English Muffins

A yeasted bread dough cut into rounds, baked on a griddle to make English muffins.

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

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Let it sit for 5 minutes until frothy.

  2. Add melted butter, salt, and flour. Mix until a dough forms.

  3. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes until smooth.

  4. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 hour until doubled in size.

Shape and cook

  1. Roll out the dough to ½ inch thick and cut into rounds. Dust with cornmeal.

  2. Let the rounds rise for another 30 minutes.

  3. Cook on a griddle over medium heat for 5-7 minutes on each side until golden brown.

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Active dry yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become airy.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and feeds the yeast, adding moisture and softness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness and flavor.

The step that matters

Cook on a griddle over medium heat. Medium heat lets the centre cook through while the outside browns evenly. Higher heat browns the surface before the interior sets, leaving the muffins doughy inside.

“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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