Skip to main content
Dessert

Mrs. Mellick's Corn Muffins

A quick corn muffin made with cornmeal, sugar, salt, margarine, boiling and cold water, bread flour, baking powder, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mrs. Mellick's 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.

Make the cornmeal base

  1. In a double boiler, mix 1 cup of cornmeal, sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, and margarine.

  2. Pour in the boiling water while stirring constantly and cook for 1 hour.

  3. Transfer to a bowl and pour over the cold water.

Finish and bake

  1. In the morning, beat the mixture until soft and smooth.

  2. Add the remaining cornmeal, bread flour, sifted salt, and baking powder.

  3. Incorporate the well-beaten egg and mix thoroughly.

  4. Drop the mixture into well-greased gem pans and bake at 400°F (200°C).

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Bread + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,383 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Cornmeal
Gelatinizes with boiling water to form the soft, sturdy body of the muffin.
Bread flour
Adds gluten-based structure so the muffins hold their shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the muffins to rise in the oven.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Margarine
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling water while stirring constantly. Cornmeal starch must be stirred as it hits the boiling water, or it clumps into lumps that stay in the batter. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so it cooks evenly into a smooth base.

“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.

More corn muffins recipes

Indian 3 See all 148 →

You might also like

Bread PuddingBread Pudding153 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesBrown Bread PuddingBrown Bread Pudding47 recipes