Skip to main content
Dessert

Methodist Crumpets

A sweet, coconut and raisin crumpet baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Methodist Crumpets

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200 °C).

Mix and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, chopped raisins, baking soda, spices, butter, milk, desiccated coconut, and salt until well combined.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a baking sheet.

  3. Bake quickly until golden brown.

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. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Raisin + coconuttop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Moist brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the drops brown.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the mixture and encourage rising and browning.
Desiccated coconut
Adds chewy texture and toasty flavor when baked.
Chopped raisins
Adds sweetness, chewiness and moisture.

The step that matters

Bake quickly until golden brown. Baking soda needs heat to react, and the drops spread as the butter melts. Watching for even golden color prevents over-browning or underbaking, since sugar darkens quickly at high oven temperatures.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, coconut):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Bananafits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, coconut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes