Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Crumpets
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and enough buttermilk or thick cream to create a soft batter.
Cook
Pour a ladleful of batter onto a hot griddle; it will spread thin.
When one side is browned, flip it over with a knife to brown the other side.
Ensure the crumpets are no thicker than ¼ inch.
Finish
Spread with jelly or sugar, roll tightly in paper, and let set.
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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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Prepared flour
- Provides the starch and structure that hold the batter together as it cooks.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set when heated.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the crumpets brown on the griddle.
- Buttermilk or thick cream
- Adds moisture so the flour forms a soft, spreadable batter.
The step that matters
Keeping the batter thin on the griddle. The batter is meant to spread thin, and it needs enough liquid to pour and spread. If it is too thick, the crumpets will not cook through evenly and will stay too thick, as the record's final step requires no more than ¼ inch.
“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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