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Dessert

Risen Muffins

A yeast-based muffin that rises overnight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Risen Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Add milk, salt, yeast, and melted shortening.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour.

  4. Let the batter rise overnight at room temperature.

Bake

  1. In the morning, bake in muffin rings on a griddle or in small tins.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Beaten eggs add structure and richness to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they set.
Yeast
Produces gas during the overnight rise, making the muffins light and airy.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.
Butter or sweet lard
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the finished muffins.

The step that matters

Let the batter rise overnight at room temperature. Yeast needs time and warmth to ferment the batter. Too little rise leaves the muffins dense, while the gas produced by fermentation gives them their open, light texture.

“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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