Name: Cornmeal Muffins
Ingredients: 1½ cups wheat flour; 1 cup yellow cornmeal; ½ teaspoon salt; 2½ teaspoons cream of tartar; ⅓ cup butter, softened; ½ cup sugar; 3 eggs, beaten; 1 pint milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Cornmeal Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Sift together the wheat flour, cornmeal, salt, and cream of tartar twice to mix well.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture and mix well.
Stir in the milk with the baking soda until combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).