Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Corn Muffins
twelve muffinsIngredients
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, beat the eggs well.
Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
Mix equal parts of milk and water to make ⅔ pint.
Make and bake the muffins
Add the milk and water mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to make a thin batter.
Pour the batter into a muffin tin to make twelve muffins.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
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.
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Cornmeal
- Gives the muffins their coarse, grainy texture and characteristic corn flavour.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the muffins rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Milk and water
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and cornmeal to form the batter.
The step that matters
Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients. Stirring only until combined keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the muffins tough 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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