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Corn Meal-potato Muffins

A muffin made with cornmeal, mashed potato, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 938 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn Meal-potato Muffins

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the corn meal, melted shortening, salt, eggs, baking powder, and liquid until combined.

  2. Add mashed potato to achieve a medium soft batter.

  3. If desired, stir in sweetening.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased muffin tin.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

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 + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 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 body and the grainy, slightly crumbly texture of the muffins.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the muffins set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the batter so the muffins rise and stay light.
Mashed potato
Adds moisture and softness, keeping the batter tender and a medium soft consistency.
Melted shortening
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Add mashed potato to achieve a medium soft batter. The batter's consistency decides the final texture. Too thick and the muffins turn dense and dry; too thin and they may spread and bake up heavy. Adjust gradually until the batter is medium soft, since the potato and liquid amounts can vary.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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