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Indian Crumpets

A batter of milk, yeast, wheat flour, butter, and cornmeal is baked on a griddle to make crumpets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Indian Crumpets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Stir the yeast and salt into the warmed milk.

  2. Add enough wheat flour to thicken the milk to a batter.

  3. Cover the mixture and let it sit by the fire overnight.

Finish the dough

  1. The next morning, add the melted butter.

  2. Mix in yellow cornmeal to form a soft dough.

Bake

  1. Grease a griddle with butter and bake the crumpets for about 15 minutes.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

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

Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and feeds the yeast.
Yeast
Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that gives the crumpets their rise and airy texture.
Wheat flour
Forms the gluten-based structure that holds the batter's gas and shape.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, softening the crumb and adding flavour.
Yellow cornmeal
Adds body and a slightly gritty texture to the soft dough.

The step that matters

Overnight rest by the fire. The yeast needs time and warmth to ferment the batter. Too cold and the rise is weak; too long and the batter may turn sour or collapse. Keep the covered batter in a warm spot.

“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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