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Dessert

Tfennessee Muffins

A quick, oven-baked muffin made with cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, lard or butter, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Tfennessee 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 together cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Rub in cold lard or butter.

  3. Beat the eggs and mix with milk, then combine with the dry ingredients to form a batter similar to cupcake batter.

Bake

  1. Grease muffin rings well and fill them two-thirds full with the batter.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Cornmeal
Provides the coarse, slightly gritty texture and corn flavor that defines the muffin.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the muffin together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the heated batter, making the muffins rise and turn light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, setting as the batter bakes.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the dry ingredients and gives the batter its moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Fill the muffin rings two-thirds full. Filling too much makes the batter overflow and bake unevenly, while filling too little yields small, dry muffins. Leaving room lets the batter rise in the hot oven without spilling.

“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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