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 ↓
Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Warm the milk and butter together.
Beat the eggs and stir them into the milk mixture.
Add enough flour to create a thick batter and mix in the yeast.
Let the batter rise.
Cook
Butter a bake-iron and the inside of muffin rings.
Place the rings on the iron and fill them three-quarters full with batter.
Cook until done.
Serve
Split or tear the muffins open.
Butter the muffins.
Serve hot.
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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Egg + buttertop 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
- Add structure and richness as they set during cooking.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and makes the batter pourable.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the muffins an airy crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the muffins their body and structure.
The step that matters
Let the batter rise. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; if the batter is under-risen, the muffins will be dense instead of light and airy.
“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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