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Dessert

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry muffins are baked with flour, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, and blueberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the eggs and mix well.

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  3. Fold in the blueberries gently.

  4. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure as its proteins build gluten with the liquid.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the muffins and helps the tops brown.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that lifts the muffins.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and helps the muffins rise.

The step that matters

Mix the batter only until combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form, and overmixing makes muffins tough and dense. Alternate dry and wet additions and fold in the blueberries gently so the batter stays tender and the berries do not break or sink.

“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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