Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Muffin Bread
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.
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, lard, and yeast.
Add enough milk to create a thick batter.
Prepare the batter the night before for breakfast or at 10 o'clock for tea.
Before baking, beat the batter well.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of the batter into a greased oven-safe pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the bread together as it bakes.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a richer texture.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the batter rise and lightens the crumb.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms a thick batter.
The step that matters
Beat the batter well before baking. Beating spreads the yeast evenly through the batter and works the flour's gluten, so the bread rises evenly and has a uniform crumb. Under-beaten batter can leave pockets of yeast and dense, uneven patches.
“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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