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 ↓
Yeast-Raised Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Mix milk, melted butter, yeast, salt, and enough flour to create a thick batter in the evening.
Cover the mixture and leave it in a warm place overnight.
Finish and cook
In the morning, add the beaten egg white and a pinch of baking soda to the batter.
Heat a greased griddle and fry the batter in greased muffin rings until golden brown.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Yeast
- Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that makes the muffins light and airy.
- Egg white
- Adds structure and lift when beaten into the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas and help the muffins rise.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the thick batter once the muffins set.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour.
- Milk
- Provides liquid to hydrate the flour and form the batter.
The step that matters
Leave the batter overnight in a warm place. The yeast needs time and warmth to ferment; too cool or too short a rise leaves the muffins dense and under-aerated, since the gas produced is what lifts the batter.
“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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