Name: Mocha Muffins
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon sugar; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 egg, beaten; 1 cup milk; 1 cup strong coffee; 1½ cups flour, sifted; 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup cooked oatmeal

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 ↓

Mocha Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Cream the sugar and butter together.
Stir in the beaten egg, milk, and strong coffee.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt alternately.
Lastly, beat in the cooked oatmeal.

Bake

Bake in buttered gem pans for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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: Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Egg: Adds structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the muffins rise and become light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor in the crumb.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form a soft, cohesive batter.
Cooked oatmeal: Adds moisture and a tender, slightly dense texture to the crumb.

“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.