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Dessert

Old Virginia Corn Muffins

A quick, oven-baked corn muffin made with cornmeal, sour cream, sour milk, baking soda, salt, and an egg.

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 ↓

Old Virginia Corn Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg until light.

  2. Add the sour cream and sour milk, then mix thoroughly.

  3. Sift together the salt, baking soda, and corn meal.

  4. Gradually add the sifted mixture to the liquid mixture and beat well again.

Bake

  1. Fill hot, well-greased muffin pans with the batter.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 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.

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. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Corn + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Corn meal
Forms the body of the muffin and gives it its characteristic corn flavour and grainy texture.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and richness, and its acidity works with the baking soda.
Sour milk
Supplies liquid and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and sour milk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Gradually add the sifted mixture to the liquid mixture. Adding the dry ingredients slowly and mixing only until combined keeps the batter from being overworked, so the muffins stay tender rather than tough.

“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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