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Cornmeal Muffins

A quick oven-baked cornmeal and wheat flour muffin with sweet milk and shortening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Cornmeal 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift together the cornmeal, wheat flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and add the sweet milk and melted shortening.

Mix and bake

  1. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

  2. Pour the batter into well-greased muffin pans.

  3. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 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

Wheat flour
Provides the main structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the muffins rise and become light.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarse, slightly crumbly texture and a distinct corn flavor.
Melted shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the muffins moist.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the wheat flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled. Stop once no dry streaks remain; a few lumps are fine.

“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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