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Dessert

Indian Muffins, No. 2

A cornmeal muffin made with yeast, eggs, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Indian Muffins, No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Cut the butter into the cornmeal.

  2. Pour enough boiling milk over the mixture to form a thick batter and set aside to cool.

  3. Whisk the eggs until light and add them to the batter.

  4. Stir in the yeast and salt.

Bake

  1. Butter square tins and fill them three-quarters full.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the main structure and body of the muffins as its starch sets when cooked.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins hold together as they bake.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the muffins a lighter texture.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and helps the muffins brown.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling milk. Hot liquid gelatinises the starch in the cornmeal, which thickens the mixture. The batter needs to be thick enough to hold its shape, because a thin batter spreads and bakes up flat and dense.

“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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