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Dessert

Muffins with Campfire Marshmallows

Muffins made with shortening, molasses, eggs, sour milk, flour, spices, and marshmallows.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Muffins with Campfire Marshmallows

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the shortening in a bowl.

  2. Add molasses, beaten egg, sour milk, and sifted flour mixed with baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

  3. Beat the mixture vigorously until well combined.

  4. Pour the batter into greased and floured muffin pans.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake until golden brown.

  2. Remove from pans, cut off the top part of each muffin, and place two halves of Campfire marshmallows in the opening.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Shortening
Adds fat for a tender texture and moist crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor.
Sour milk
Adds liquid and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture vigorously until well combined. Mixing develops gluten in the flour, which gives structure. Overbeating can make muffins tough, while thorough mixing ensures the leavening is evenly distributed for an even rise.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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