Name: Honey Muffins
Ingredients: 1 ½ pints all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons butter; 3 eggs; 1 cup honey; ½ pint milk

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Honey Muffins

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.

Prepare

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Work in the butter until combined.

Mix and bake

Beat in the eggs, honey, and milk until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + honeytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,327 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the main structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the muffins rise and become light.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Honey: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps form the batter's texture.

“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.