Skip to main content
Dessert

Hominy Muffins

A yeast-based muffin containing boiled rice and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Hominy Muffins

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 ↓

Hominy Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Beat the eggs well and stir them into the butter mixture.

  4. Add 1 pint of flour, then the milk, and mix in the remaining flour.

  5. Stir in the boiled rice and yeast, mixing well for 7-8 minutes.

  6. Leave the mixture to rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, butter a dripping pan and the muffin rings.

  2. Arrange the rings in the pan and fill them nearly three-quarters full with batter.

  3. Let them rise in a warm place for about an hour.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Yeast
Ferments the batter so it rises and gives the muffins an airy, light crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting as the muffins bake.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour to the crumb.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the risen batter together.
Boiled rice
Adds moisture and a tender, soft texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Overnight rise. The batter needs a long, slow rise for the yeast to develop flavour and lift the dough. Rushing this step or letting it rise too little leaves the muffins dense and under-risen.

“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.

You might also like

Rice CakeRice Cake120 recipesRice CreamRice Cream43 recipesRice JellyRice Jelly42 recipesRice PuddingRice Pudding22 recipes