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Dessert

New York Rye Muffins

A quick rye muffin made with rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, lard, butter, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

New York Rye 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 and mix the rye flour, cornmeal, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.

  2. Work in the lard and butter until combined.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and milk, and mix into a firm batter.

Bake

  1. Grease muffin pans well and fill them to two-thirds full.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Rye + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together918 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Rye flour
Adds a dense, hearty structure and a distinctive earthy flavour.
All-purpose flour
Provides gluten for structure, holding the muffins together.
Cornmeal
Adds a coarse texture and a slightly sweet corn flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the muffins rise.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps it moist.

The step that matters

Filling the muffin pans to two-thirds full. Batter needs room to rise in the oven. Overfilling can cause spill-over and dense, uneven tops, while underfilling yields small muffins. Two-thirds full leaves space for the leavening to lift the batter.

“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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