Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Corn 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 the batter
Cream butter in a mixing bowl.
Gradually add sugar to lightly beaten egg yolks.
Sift together cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to egg mixture.
Fold in lightly beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour batter into buttered gem pans.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter and whites, folded in last, add lightness and help the muffins rise.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, lifting the batter so the muffins rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb, and is creamed to trap air in the batter.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the muffins hold their shape as they bake.
- Yellow cornmeal
- Gives the muffins their corn flavour and a coarser, crumbly texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air that makes the muffins light. Stir them in gently, folding rather than beating, so the air is not knocked out before the batter reaches the oven.
“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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