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Bread

Crumpets

Crumpets are small, round, spongy breads made from a batter of milk, flour, yeast, butter, salt, baking soda, and baked in a muffin tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Crumpets

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

  1. Soften the yeast in a little warm milk.

  2. Add the yeast mixture to the remaining milk with the salt.

  3. Stir in enough flour to make a muffin batter.

  4. Let the batter stand overnight.

Rise and bake

  1. In the morning, add the melted butter and the baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water.

  2. Beat the mixture thoroughly.

  3. Place in well-oiled muffin tins, filling them half full.

  4. Let rise for about 25 minutes.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Bread flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the batter its structure and holds the bubbles.
Compressed yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas during fermentation, which makes the crumpets rise and become airy.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast into a workable batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to release extra gas, adding lift and open holes.
Melted butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer flavor and texture.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture thoroughly. Beating develops the gluten and evenly distributes the gas-producing yeast and baking soda, so the batter rises evenly and forms a uniform, open crumb rather than dense patches.

“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.

More crumpets recipes

English 15Cornmeal 5Plain 4Tea 4Scotch 3 See all 49 →

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