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Dessert

Buttermilk Muffins

A quick baked muffin made with buttermilk, flour, baking soda, eggs, salt, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour 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 ↓

Buttermilk Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the buttermilk into the flour until a stiff batter forms.

  2. Add the eggs and hot water, then mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it last, beating it in thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into small gem pans or rings on a greased griddle.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Buttermilk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the muffins and adds tenderness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the buttermilk's acid to produce gas that makes the muffins rise.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins set and hold their shape.

The step that matters

Beating in the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dispersed through the batter, or pockets of unreacted soda leave bitter spots and uneven rising. Adding it last and beating thoroughly spreads it evenly before the gas forms.

“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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