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Corn Muffins—southern Style

A quick, sweet and savory corn muffin made with cornmeal, egg, shortening, baking soda, sour milk, 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

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

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg and mix in the melted shortening and sour milk or buttermilk.

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

  3. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins, filling each about two-thirds full.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20-25 minutes 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. 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 body and the characteristic grainy texture of the muffins.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the muffins.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Supplies moisture and acidity, which activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the batter until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled. A few lumps are fine, and stirring gently keeps the texture tender.

“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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