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Dessert

Sweet Muffins

A sweet muffin made with flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk, butter, sugar, eggs, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Sweet Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine a heaping teacupful of sugar, three pints of flour, and three teaspoons of cream of tartar.

  2. Dissolve one and a half teaspoonfuls of soda in milk.

  3. Add a piece of butter the size of an egg to the mixture.

  4. Add milk enough to make the batter as thin as pancakes.

  5. Beat the eggs separately, adding the whites last.

Bake

  1. Bake the batter in gem pans in a hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

884Calories
28 gProtein
31 gFat
121 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
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Keokuk (Iowa). Westminster Presbyterian church. 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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 batter's main structure as the starch sets during baking.
Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, and the yolks add richness and binding.
Soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas that makes the muffins rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts with the soda to produce carbon dioxide and gives a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer flavor.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and thins the batter to pancake consistency.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs separately, adding the whites last.. Whites beaten to a foam hold air that expands in the oven and lightens the muffins. Folding them in last, gently, keeps that air from collapsing.

“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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