Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Raised Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Mix the dough
In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until very light.
Work the melted butter into the raised dough.
Add the egg and sugar mixture to the dough and mix well.
Bake
Spoon the mixture into muffin rings.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
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.
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raised dough
- Provides the yeasted base that gives the muffins their light, airy crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the muffins set and hold their shape when baked.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, coating the dough and softening its crumb.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps with browning on the outside as it bakes.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs and sugar until very light. Beating incorporates air into the eggs, which adds lift and a lighter texture to the finished muffins once they are folded into the dough.
“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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