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Dessert

Corn Muffins—southern Style

A quick, savory muffin made with cornmeal, eggs, shortening, baking soda, sour milk or buttermilk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Muffins—southern Style

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. 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 the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the corn meal, baking soda, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg and combine it with the melted shortening and sour milk or buttermilk.

  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin, filling each cup about two-thirds full.

  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

  3. Let cool slightly before serving.

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. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Provides the main structure and the grainy, crumbly texture of the muffins.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the muffins.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda and softens the crumb.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and contributes to browning.

The step that matters

Stir the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten and dense, tough muffins. Stopping as soon as the flour is moistened keeps the crumb tender. The acid-soda reaction also starts once wet and dry ingredients meet, so the batter should go into the tin promptly.

“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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