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Potato Muffins

A baked cornmeal and potato flour muffin with milk, water, eggs, and shortening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potato Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. 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 the cornmeal

  1. Scald the cornmeal with the milk and water mixed with salt, then remove from heat.

  2. Stir in the shortening.

  3. Let cool.

Make the batter

  1. Add the potato flour (or mashed potato) and baking powder, then the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Mix in the remaining cup of milk, making a total of 3 cups of liquid.

  3. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 35 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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  3. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Provides the main body and coarse, crumbly structure of the muffin.
Potato flour or mashed potato
Adds moisture and a tender, soft crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and binding; whites, beaten, trap air to help the muffins rise and set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the muffins rise.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter hydrate the cornmeal and potato.

The step that matters

Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. The whites hold the air that lifts the batter in the oven. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves dense, heavy muffins.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Capsicumfits less well
  4. Sweet potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg. 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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