Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Mrs, Cleghorn
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Combine one quart of sweet milk, two eggs, one tablespoon of butter, one teacup of yeast, flour, and a little salt to make a stiff batter.
Let the batter rise until light.
Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg into two quarts of flour.
Add three well beaten eggs, a little salt, one teacup of yeast, one pint of milk, and one pint of water.
Beat the eggs and milk together, then add the water.
Stir in the flour and butter.
Add the yeast and let it stand until morning.
Make the second batter
Combine one quart of flour, one and one-half pints of warm milk, one-half tea-cup of yeast, two tablespoons of melted butter, two eggs, and one teaspoon of saleratus.
Set the batter in a warm place.
When light, bake in rings.
Combine well beaten eggs, one large spoon of sugar, one and one-fourth cups of flour, one cup of milk, one teaspoon melted butter, and a little salt.
Put two teaspoons baking powder into the flour.
Bake in rings.
Melt one ounce of butter in a pint of milk.
Add a little yeast and two eggs, well beaten.
Stir in flour enough to make a stiff batter.
Set it to rise.
When quite light, add a little salt.
Bake
Place rings in a dripping pan, fill and bake in a slow oven.
Bake quickly.
Bake in rings on a hot griddle, filling the rings half full of the batter.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + teatop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Yeast
- Ferments the batter so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the muffins their structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor.
- Milk
- Moistens the flour and adds richness and softness to the crumb.
- Saleratus
- Reacts with acid in the batter to release gas and help it rise.
The step that matters
Let the batter rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to ferment; underproofed batter bakes dense, while the rise sets the airy crumb before baking.
“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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