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 ↓
Raised Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix the ingredients in the order given.
Add flour gradually, beating well until the batter is so stiff you cannot beat it anymore.
Let it rise overnight.
Bake
In the morning, put the batter into greased pans, using a spoon and knife to avoid stirring out the air.
Bake for about fifteen 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Builds the structure that holds the batter's shape while it bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps the batter stay soft and tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds richness.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during the overnight rise, lightening the batter.
The step that matters
Filling the pans gently. The gas bubbles built up during the overnight rise give the muffins their lift. Stirring or pressing the batter releases that air, so the muffins can come out 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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