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Dessert

Berry Muffins II

Berry muffins made with butter, sugar, egg, flour, baking powder, salt, milk, and berries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Berry Muffins II

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and beaten egg, mixing well.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix and sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, reserving ½ cup of flour.

  4. Toss the berries in the reserved flour, then add the remaining flour alternately with the milk to the butter mixture.

  5. Fold in the floured berries gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that sets the muffin crumb as the batter bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the muffins tenderness and a rich flavor.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the muffins rise in the oven.
Milk
Adds liquid that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
Berries
Add moisture and fruity flavor throughout the muffins.

The step that matters

Fold in the floured berries gently. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, making the muffins tough. Tossing the berries in flour helps keep them suspended instead of sinking, and gentle folding preserves the batter's airy texture.

“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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