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Indian Muffins

A yeast-based batter with Indian meal, milk, eggs, and baking soda baked in rings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Indian Muffins

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Indian Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine yeast and water in a bowl.

  2. Add enough flour to create a thick batter and let it rise overnight.

Finish and bake

  1. In the morning, mix in Indian meal, milk, baking soda, salt, and eggs.

  2. Beat the mixture well before pouring it into baking rings.

  3. Bake until golden brown.

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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Yeast
Ferments the batter overnight, producing gas that makes it rise and turn airy.
Indian meal
Forms the bulk of the muffin structure as the starch sets during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the muffins hold their shape as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to give extra lift and a lighter crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the texture and aiding browning.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture well before pouring it into baking rings. Thorough beating evenly distributes the eggs, leavening and meal, and works air into the batter. Uneven mixing can leave pockets of baking soda or dense spots, so the muffins may rise unevenly or turn out heavy.

“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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