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Dessert

Muffins in Rings

Muffins made by baking batter in ring molds on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 in Rings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and egg, then stir in the melted butter.

  3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just mixed.

Cook

  1. Preheat a griddle over medium heat and grease it lightly.

  2. Pour the batter into ring molds on the griddle and cook until golden brown on both sides.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Provides the starch and structure that hold the muffin together as it cooks.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter, and it helps the muffin set.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, which lifts the batter and makes it rise.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter moisture.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown evenly.

The step that matters

Cook the batter until golden on both sides. The batter needs time to set before it can be turned, so flipping too early can tear the muffin. Browning happens at the surface, so keeping the griddle at medium heat lets the centre cook through before the outside darkens.

“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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