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Dessert

Christine's Muffins

A batter of butter, sugar, eggs, milk, baking powder, flour, and salt baked in a quick oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Christine's Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat one tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of sugar together.

  2. Beat two eggs separately.

  3. Add one cup milk, three teaspoons baking powder, and flour to make a stiff batter.

  4. Bake twenty minutes in a quick oven.

  5. Beat three eggs separately.

  6. Add melted one teaspoon butter, two cups milk, and one teaspoon salt to the eggs.

  7. Add two cups flour little by little to prevent it being lumpy.

  8. Strain through a sieve.

Bake

  1. Fill well greased gem pans half full.

  2. Bake in quick oven twenty-five minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By North End Club (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins set as they bake.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the muffins rise.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Add the flour little by little. Adding flour gradually and mixing smoothly prevents lumps, because dry flour clumps when it meets liquid and is hard to fully blend in later.

“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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