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 ↓
Squash Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.
Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Make and bake the batter
In a separate bowl, beat the squash and egg, adding a little milk to achieve a smooth consistency.
Combine the squash mixture with the flour mixture, adding more milk as needed to reach muffin batter consistency.
Spoon the batter into muffin tins and bake for 20 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.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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 muffin together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to tenderize the crumb and add richness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the muffins rise and become light.
- Dry squash
- Adds moisture, body and sweetness to the batter.
The step that matters
Combining the squash mixture with the flour mixture. Overmixing once the wet and dry parts meet develops gluten, which makes muffins tough. Mix only until just combined, and add milk gradually so the batter reaches muffin consistency without becoming runny.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Milletfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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