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Corn-meal Muffins

A quick batter of cornmeal, buttermilk, eggs, and lard baked into muffins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,986 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Corn-meal Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Stir baking soda into buttermilk until it foams.

  2. Beat egg yolks and add to buttermilk.

  3. Mix in cornmeal.

Bake

  1. Melt lard in muffin tins until very hot.

  2. Pour batter into hot tins.

  3. Add beaten egg whites and salt to taste before baking.

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. Buttermilk + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,986 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Buttermilk
Provides moisture and tang, and reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas that makes the muffins rise.
Eggs
Egg yolks add richness and binding, while whipped whites add airy lift to the batter.
Cornmeal
Forms the main structure and gives the muffins their grainy, sturdy texture.
Lard
Adds fat that crisps and browns the edges and helps keep the muffins from sticking.

The step that matters

Heat the lard in the tins until very hot. Pouring batter into hot fat starts the crust setting and browning immediately, giving crisp edges and easy release. Cool tins let the batter soak in grease and stick.

“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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