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Dessert

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are quick baked cakes with blueberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light.

  2. Add the beaten egg, salt, and sweet milk; mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

  5. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into muffin tins, filling them about ¾ full.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 muffin's shape as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the muffins rise and turn light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the muffins and helps the top brown during baking.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and provides moisture for a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Stir the dry ingredients in just until combined. Overmixing once the flour is wet develops gluten, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled instead of tender. Mixing only until the streaks disappear keeps the crumb soft.

“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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