Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Emilie Sadilek
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream butter or lard.
Add beaten eggs and mix well.
Add dry ingredients sifted and milk alternately.
Bake
Bake twenty minutes in moderate oven.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the muffins hold together.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the muffins rise and turn light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Adding the dry ingredients and milk alternately. Flour develops gluten once it meets liquid, and overmixing makes muffins tough. Adding the dry ingredients and milk in alternating portions and mixing only until combined keeps the batter smooth and the crumb tender.
“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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