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 ↓
Corn Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Sift the Indian meal into a bowl.
In a separate bowl, soften the yeast in warm water.
Add the softened yeast, butter, sweet milk, salt, and molasses to the meal. Stir the mixture thoroughly and briskly.
Let the batter rise for about 5 hours or overnight if preparing for breakfast.
Bake and serve
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Pour the batter into buttered muffin rings or patty tins.
Bake until golden brown and serve hot in a napkin.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + molassestop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,243 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Indian meal
- Provides the cornmeal structure that forms the body of the muffins.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during the long rise, leavening the batter and giving it a light texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps the muffins brown in the oven.
- Sweet milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the meal and forms the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness and depth of flavour, and aids browning.
The step that matters
Let the batter rise. The yeast needs enough time to produce gas for leavening; a short rise leaves the muffins dense, while the long rise is what gives this batter its lift and flavour.
“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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