Corn Muffins (1876)

This easy Corn Muffin recipe from 1876 is simple and hearty.

Dear friends ~

Nights have been cold here in Maine, and we’ve seen the first hard frosts adorning the yard and gardens in the mornings. Things have taken a turn toward winter. 

With the frosty mornings, warm and cozy breakfasts have been welcome, even if it means I need to get into the kitchen a little extra early on school mornings. 

These corn muffins were a tasty little recipe to try this week, and I love it that they come together so quickly. Five minutes of heating the pan while mixing ingredients, another 14 or so for the muffins to bake, and they’re ready for the table. 

You’ll notice there’s no salt or sugar in this recipe, so the flavor of the corn really comes through (if you can get your hands on fresh-ground corn meal, it’s absolutely worth it!). That nice neutral flavor profile makes it easy to top these with just about anything you like, whether sweet or savory. 

If you’re looking for something easy and different to try along with breakfast this weekend, these feel hearty and wholesome, perfect for a cozy morning.

~ Anna

CORN MUFFINS

Two cups of Indian meal, two cups of flour, two eggs, piece of butter size of an egg, melted, two teaspoonsful of cream of tartar, one teaspoonful of soda, and one pint of milk.

The Economical Cook Book, 1876

Here’s a photo of the recipe as it appears in the cookbook:

A FEW COOKING NOTES: 

This is such a quick and easy little recipe, but a here a few notes that might help if you’re giving it a go.

How much butter is “size of an egg”? ​

The classic conversion for this old measurement of butter, is that it equals ¼ cup. You can see this in the table below, which appears in Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book (my copy is from 1883).

Personally, if I were matching the size of my own chicken’s eggs, I’d go closer to ⅓ cup, and I actually think this recipe could handle this if you wanted to play around with it. For the sake of adhering to the common conversion though, I went with ¼ cup.

Indian Meal​

This simply means cornmeal. Throughout the entirety of the 1800’s this is what cornmeal is most commonly referred to, in every cook book I’ve studied, all the way from the 1820’s through the 1890’s. It took until well into the 20th century, before this terminology finally began to be widely dropped, in favor of simply “cornmeal”. 

The freshest, stone-ground cornmeal you can get will definitely give the best result, especially since the corn flavor really has the chance to shine through in this very simple recipe.

What type of pan to use? ​

If you’re lucky enough to have a good cast iron muffin pan, by all means use that. Nothing is better than a nice crusty muffin straight out a cast iron pan!

The 1800’s way to make muffins in cast iron, is to grease the pan, then heat it in the oven. When it’s good and hot, take it out to spoon the muffin batter into the hot pan, and then put it right back into the oven for the muffins to bake. When you follow this method, using a well-seasoned pan, it’s almost impossible to end up with baked goods stuck to your pan. The muffins come out cleanly, and with a perfectly crisp exterior. 

If you don’t have a cast iron pan, go ahead and grease your muffin pan, using it as usual, without pre-heating it as you would for an iron pan.

Oven Temperature

Breakfast breads were made in quite a hot, or “quick” oven. I set mine to 400° F, and found that worked well.

How long to bake these muffins?​

In my cast iron muffin pan, at 400°F, these take 14-15 minutes to bake perfectly. You want the tops to be noticeably golden brown, and the centers to be well set. 

If you’re using a different type of muffin pan, and haven’t pre-heated it, your muffins might take just a little longer.

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We definitely enjoyed these, especially the way the simple, minimal ingredients allowed the flavor of the cornmeal to shine through. They’re a fairly solid little muffin, though the crumb is not what you’d call dense, and they’re really quite lovely. 

I’m eager to try a few different corn muffin recipes from other cook books, representing different decades, to see if others might result in lighter, more lofty muffins. I’ll definitely keep you posted!

As always, feel free to send me an email anytime, with recipe requests! ‘Til next time, ~ Anna

This post was originally published in the 1800’s Housewife newsletter. Not on the mailing list? You can join here to receive full recipes with cooking notes straight to your inbox!

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