Name: Muffins. Mrs. T. E. Brown.
Ingredients: 2 quarts of flour; 3 eggs, well beaten; ¼ teaspoon of salt; 1 teacup of yeast; 1 pint of milk; 1 pint of water; butter the size of an egg

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 ↓

Muffins. Mrs. T. E. Brown.

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

Rub the butter into the flour.
Beat the eggs and milk together, then add the water.
Stir in the flour and butter mixture, then add the yeast.

Rise and bake

Let the batter stand until morning.
Place rings in a dripping pan, fill them with batter, and bake in a slow oven.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 main structure of the muffins once the batter sets in the oven.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, binding the batter as it cooks.
Yeast: Produces gas during the long standing time, so the batter rises and lightens.
Butter: Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness.
Milk: Adds moisture and richness, and helps browning on the crust.

The step that matters

Let the batter stand until morning. Yeast needs time to ferment and raise the batter. Rushing this step leaves the muffins dense, because the gas that lightens the crumb has not formed yet.

“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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Muffins. Mrs. T. E. Brown.