Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Stir the yeast and salt together for about 10 minutes.
Strain the mixture into oatmeal and mix the dough as for muffins.
Let the dough rise for 1 hour.
Roll the dough into pieces the size of an egg and roll them out on a floured surface.
Cover with flannel and let them rise to a proper thickness.
Bake on an iron plate until crisp on both sides, but do not burn.
Pull them open to reveal a honeycomb texture, add butter, and press the pieces back together.
Cut into pieces with a knife for 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beer + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together680 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Beer + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together781 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
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