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Wheat and Corn Meal Muffins

Muffins made with wheat flour, cornmeal, shortening, sour milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓

Wheat and Corn Meal Muffins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the shortening and syrup together, then add the sour milk.

  2. Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda, and salt together.

  3. Mix the dry mixture into the liquid thoroughly.

  4. Beat the egg lightly, then add it last, mixing for a few minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased muffin pans.

  2. Bake.

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 + flourtop 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. Syrup + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,540 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Syrup + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,143 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Milk and flour 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

Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the muffins rise and become light.
Sour milk
Provides liquid and acidity that reacts with soda to help the muffins rise.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the muffins together as they bake.
Cornmeal
Gives the muffins their coarse texture and characteristic corn flavor.

The step that matters

Mixing the dry mixture into the liquid. Mixing thoroughly ensures the leavening is evenly distributed, but overmixing develops gluten in the flour and can make muffins tough. Combine just until the dry ingredients are moistened and evenly blended.

“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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