Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, sugar, sour milk, baking soda, egg, coarse sea salt, and melted butter until well combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the mixture into muffin tins and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
For a variation, pour the mixture into a shallow pan to make Johnny Cake.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + eggtop 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).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse, grainy structure and characteristic texture of the muffins.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter so it rises in the oven.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets.
- Butter
- Adds fat for moisture, tenderness and flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the sour milk, so the batter should go into the tins and into the oven promptly. Baking until golden brown ensures the crumb sets and the surface browns through the Maillard reaction, while stopping before the muffins dry out.
“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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