Name: Corn Muffins
Ingredients: 1 cup corn meal; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 cup white flour; 1 cup thin cream or milk; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 2 eggs, beaten very light; ¼ cup sugar; 4 tablespoons melted butter

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Corn 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.

Sift together corn meal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
Add cream and stir to a smooth batter.
Add well-beaten eggs and melted butter.
Beat thoroughly and bake in buttered gem cups at 400°F (200°C) for twenty 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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,165 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Corn meal: Provides the main body and characteristic coarse, grainy texture of the muffins.
White flour: Adds gluten-forming structure so the muffins hold their shape.
Baking powder: Releases gas that makes the batter rise and gives the muffins a light crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Beat thoroughly and bake in buttered gem cups at 400°F (200°C) for twenty minutes.. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet, so the batter should go into a hot oven promptly after mixing. Thorough beating builds some gluten for structure, while overbeating can make the muffins 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.