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 ↓
Wheat Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Melt the butter in the milk and let it cool.
Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl.
Gradually add the milk and flour alternately to the eggs until the batter is thin.
Stir in the yeast or baking powder.
Cook and serve
Pour the batter into muffin rings on a griddle.
Bake until golden brown, then butter before serving.
Tear the muffins apart to butter them instead of cutting.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during cooking.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the muffins their body.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the batter.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the muffins an open crumb.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and its milk solids help the crust brown.
The step that matters
Adding the milk and flour alternately. Adding flour and liquid gradually keeps the batter smooth without lumps. Flour that is dumped in at once can clump and stay dry, leaving an uneven texture in the finished muffins.
“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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