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 ↓
Soda Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, sugar, and salt.
Gradually add milk to form a stiff batter and beat well for a few minutes.
Cook
Preheat a hot earthen pan and grease it with butter.
Pour the batter into the pan, about half an inch thick.
Bake until golden brown on each side.
Serve
Serve hot with butter or allow to cool and toast 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.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the muffin once mixed with liquid.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides the acid that activates the baking soda, helping the muffins rise.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and binds the ingredients into a stiff batter.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into the pan at the right thickness. Batter poured too thick may cook through slowly and stay doughy inside before the outside browns. Keeping it about half an inch thick lets heat reach the centre so it sets evenly.
“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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