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Dessert

French Muffins

A yeasted dough muffin made with flour, lard, sugar, eggs, milk, water, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

French Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Rub the lard into the flour, then add the sugar.

  2. Make a hole in the center and add the yeast mixed with 4 tablespoons of warm water.

  3. Let the mixture rise for a short time.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix them with the milk and water.

  5. Combine this mixture with the flour mixture.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, divide the dough into 4‑oz cakes.

  2. Brush the tops with beaten egg before baking.

  3. Bake 6 to 8 cakes at a time on a baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes.

  4. Turn the cakes over when half cooked.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and a rich texture.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, and their beaten surface helps the tops brown.
Barm or yeast
Leavens the dough so it rises before shaping.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and helps browning through its sugars.

The step that matters

Let the mixture rise for a short time. Yeast needs time to produce gas that expands the dough. Rising too briefly leaves the muffins dense, while the dough must be risen before it is divided and baked.

“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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