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 ↓
Hominy 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.
Prepare the batter
Mash the boiled hominy with a fork until fine.
In a bowl, combine the hominy, cornmeal, milk, melted butter, sugar, egg, and baking powder.
Beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into gem pans.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Boiled hominy
- Provides the main body and corn flavor of the muffins, with a soft, moist crumb.
- Cornmeal
- Gives the muffins their structure and grainy texture.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps set the muffins as they bake.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the muffins rise and turn light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the cornmeal so the batter pours smoothly.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
The step that matters
Beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined. Thorough mixing spreads the baking powder and egg evenly through the batter, so the muffins rise uniformly and set with an even texture rather than patchy pockets or dense spots.
“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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