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Dessert

Soda Muffins

Soda muffins are quick, leavened cakes made with baking soda, flour, butter, eggs, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Soda Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift the salt and baking soda with the flour.

  2. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  3. Beat the eggs, separating the yolks and whites, then combine them.

Make the batter

  1. Add the creamed butter to the flour mixture, then mix in the eggs.

  2. Pour in the sour milk and beat until you have a light batter.

Bake

  1. Fill muffin or cake pans two-thirds full and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the muffins together as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the muffins rise.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it sets.
Sour milk
Supplies moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda for lift.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.

The step that matters

Pour in the sour milk and beat until you have a light batter. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk, so the batter should be mixed promptly and baked without long delay. Overbeating develops gluten and can make the muffins tough, so beat only until combined and light.

“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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