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Grand Corn Muffins
I CUP BUTTER (OR HALF BUTTER, HALF FAT) I SCANT CUP SUGAR 3 EGGS, BEATEN LIGHT 2 CUPS FLOUR I CUP CORN MEAL 3 TEASPOONS BAKING POWDER I TEASPOON SALT I CUP MILK (ABOUT) Cream butter, gradually add sugar and cream together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix together. Sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with milk. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full, and bake 30 minutes at 375°. Take out of pans and eat at once. Yields 24-30 muffins.
A rich, cake-like corn muffin with a full cup of fat and nearly a cup of sugar — closer to a Northern-style sweet cornbread than a Southern one. The temperature is already given, so the only real judgement calls are the batter's consistency and the pan size.
- "Half fat"In a book of this vintage, "fat" means lard, bacon drippings or vegetable shortening. Half butter and half shortening gives a slightly higher, softer crumb; all butter gives better flavour.
- The milk is deliberately vague"1 cup (about)" is doing real work: cornmeal grinds absorb differently. Add milk until the batter drops heavily from the spoon but is not pourable, and stop there.
- Mix as little as possibleOnce the flour goes in, fold only until no dry streaks remain. Creaming the butter and sugar well is where the lift comes from; beating after the flour builds gluten and makes the muffins tough and tunnelled.
- Cornmeal grindFine or medium yellow cornmeal suits this best. Stone-ground coarse meal will drink more milk and stay gritty unless you let the batter rest 10 minutes before filling the tins.
- Pan size and yieldTwenty-four to thirty muffins from this quantity implies small tins — roughly 2-inch cups. In standard 12-cup modern tins you will get about 18, and the larger cups may want the full 30 minutes or a little more. Test with a skewer at the centre.
- Baking powderThree teaspoons for three cups of dry ingredients is a normal double-acting proportion today. No adjustment needed, but get the batter into the oven promptly once mixed.
- "Eat at once"Sound advice rather than enthusiasm. Cornmeal muffins stale fast and go dry within hours; turn them out of the tins immediately so trapped steam does not soften the bottoms.
- Cooking outdoorsIf you are working from a camp oven or covered Dutch oven rather than a range, aim for a steady moderate heat and keep more coals on the lid than beneath, so the sugary bottoms do not scorch before the centres set.