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Rye Muffins

A yeast-based muffin made with rye flour, molasses, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Rye Muffins

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 ↓

Rye Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Scald 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1 cup of warm water.

  2. Combine 3 cups warm water, 1 cup molasses, 2 cups rye flour, and 1 cup yeast in a large bowl.

  3. Add a little coarse sea salt and stir to form a stiff batter.

  4. Mix 1 cup of dough with 1½ pints of milk and let it sit for 1 hour.

Finish and bake

  1. Add 4 eggs, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and ½ teaspoon of baking soda to the dough mixture, then stir until well combined.

  2. Bake in muffin rings.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + ryetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

Rye flour
Provides the dark, earthy structure and flavour that defines the muffin.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, leavening the batter so it rises.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins set as they bake.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep colour to the batter.
Melted butter
Adds fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to add lift and help browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough mixture sit for 1 hour. Yeast needs time to ferment and build gas and flavour; rushing this step leaves the muffins dense and flat-tasting.

“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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