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 ↓
Twin Mountain Muffins
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Gradually add the sugar and then the salt.
Beat the egg lightly and mix it with the milk.
Combine the egg mixture with the creamed butter and sugar.
Mix in the sifted flour and baking powder until just combined.
Bake
Spoon the batter into buttered gem tins.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the muffins a tender crumb and flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the muffins brown in the oven.
- Egg
- Adds structure and binds the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a soft, tender batter.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the muffins bake.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas that makes the muffins rise and become light.
The step that matters
Mix in the sifted flour and baking powder until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and dense. Stopping once the flour is just combined keeps the crumb tender and light.
“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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