Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Corn Meal 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
Scald the cornmeal and let it cool.
Mix and bake
In a bowl, stir in the eggs, milk, and lard. Mix until well combined.
Pour the mixture into muffin tins.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.
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.
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Forms the body of the muffin and gives its characteristic grainy structure.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Lard
- Adds fat for tenderness and helps the muffin brown at the edges.
- Milk
- Hydrates the cornmeal and adds moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Scalding the cornmeal. Pouring hot liquid over cornmeal or heating it softens the grains and starch so the batter is moister and less gritty. Letting it cool before mixing keeps the eggs from scrambling and the batter at a workable temperature.
“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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