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Dessert

Plain Muffins

A simple batter of eggs, flour, milk, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and butter baked into muffins.

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

Plain Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the baking powder and salt with the flour.

  2. Beat the egg whites separately.

  3. Beat the yolks separately.

  4. Add the milk to the yolks.

  5. Mix in the melted butter.

  6. Combine the yolk mixture with the flour.

  7. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  8. The batter should be thin enough to pour.

Bake

  1. Bake immediately in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) in greased rings or gem pans, or on a hot, greased griddle.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks add richness and whites, beaten and folded in, lighten the batter for a tender crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that give the muffins their structure.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and liquid so the flour hydrates and the batter pours.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to add lift and help browning.
Cream of tartar
Acidic component that reacts with the baking soda to produce gas for rising.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring or deflating them vigorously knocks the air out, leaving dense muffins. Fold gently until just combined and bake immediately, before the gas from the leavening escapes.

“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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