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Dessert

Cornmeal Muffins

A quick, sweet and savory cornmeal muffin baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cornmeal Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg and combine it with sour milk and melted butter.

  3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins and bake for 20-25 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. Milk + buttertop 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
Gives the muffins their coarse texture and characteristic corn flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts with the liquid and heat, lifting the batter so the muffins rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of the sour milk to produce gas for rising and aids browning.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and it adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Stir the wet and dry ingredients only until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes muffins tough and tunnelled. Lumps left in the batter are fine and help keep the crumb tender.

“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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