Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Raised Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.
Mix flour and salt in a bowl.
Add the yeast mixture and enough cold water to form a soft dough.
Knead the dough until soft, cover with a towel, and let it rise overnight in a warm place.
Cook the muffins
Heat a griddle to medium heat and sift dry flour on it.
Beat the egg white until stiff and fold it into the dough.
Bake the muffins on the floured griddle in slightly buttered large tin rings.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Forms the dough's structure and body once it is kneaded and risen.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during the overnight rise, leavening the dough so the muffins become light.
- Egg white
- Beaten until stiff and folded in, it adds lightness and airy texture to the dough.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiff egg white. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the beaten white, so the dough stays light instead of deflating and turning dense.
“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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