Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Corn-meal Muffins
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
In another bowl, mix melted butter and eggs.
Add the butter and egg mixture to the dry ingredients.
Gradually add milk until you achieve a stiff batter.
Bake
Spoon the batter into greased muffin tins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Cornmeal
- Provides the main body and the grainy, slightly crumbly texture of the muffin.
- All-purpose flour
- Gives the muffins structure so they hold their shape rather than crumbling.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to make the muffins rise and turn light.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the muffins set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
The step that matters
Adding milk gradually to reach a stiff batter. Too much liquid at once makes the batter loose and can produce flat, dense muffins. Adding milk slowly lets you stop once the batter is stiff enough to hold its shape in the tins.
“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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