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 ↓
Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Warm the milk and butter together.
In a bowl, combine the warm milk and butter with the eggs, salt, and yeast.
Add enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Cover the mixture and let it rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size.
Bake and serve
Grease your baking iron and muffin rings.
Pour the batter into the rings and bake until light brown.
Remove from the oven, tear them apart, and butter before serving.
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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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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness to the batter as they set during baking.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, causing the batter to rise and become airy.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the batter its structure and holds the rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its sugars help the crust brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat for softer texture and rich flavour.
The step that matters
Let the batter rise until doubled. Yeast needs time and warmth to ferment fully; under-proofed batter stays dense, while over-proofed batter can collapse and lose its structure.
“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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