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Dessert

Corn Meal Muffins

A quick muffin made with corn meal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, lard, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Corn Meal 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift together corn meal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub in the cold lard.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and milk, mixing into a batter the consistency of cupcake batter.

Bake

  1. Fill greased muffin tins two-thirds full.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Gives the muffins their grainy texture and characteristic corn flavor.
Flour
Provides gluten structure so the muffins hold their shape while baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the muffins to rise in the oven.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes to a moist texture.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients into a batter and adds moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Fill the tins two-thirds full. Filling the tins only two-thirds full leaves room for the batter to rise in the oven without overflowing, while the baking powder releases gas. Overfilling can make the muffins spill over and bake unevenly.

“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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