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Dessert

Corn-meal Puffs

Cornmeal puffs are a baked custard-like cake made with cornmeal, milk, sugar, nutmeg, eggs, and buttered teacups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Corn-meal Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a large pot, stir cornmeal, powdered sugar, and nutmeg into boiling milk.

  2. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then stir them into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered teacups, filling them nearly full.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve with lemon sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Nutmeg + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Nutmeg and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
Beaten eggs add structure and lift, setting the puffs as they bake.
Indian meal
Cornmeal thickens the boiled milk and gives the puffs their body and texture.
Powdered sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Milk
Boiling milk hydrates the cornmeal and provides moisture for a tender interior.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Air whipped into the eggs is what makes the puffs rise. Whisking them until light and fluffy before folding them into the warm cornmeal mixture keeps that air in, so the puffs rise in the oven instead of staying dense.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, egg, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, butter. 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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