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Plain Buns

A yeast-based bun made with flour, butter, sugar, sponge, milk, and molasses, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Plain Buns

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 ↓

Plain Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, butter, and sugar together.

  2. Add the sponge and enough milk to form a soft dough.

  3. Knead the dough well and place it back in the bowl to rise.

  4. Let it rise in the afternoon; the next morning, knead it lightly.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into small cakes the size of a half-dollar and about ½ inch thick.

  2. Place the cakes in buttered shallow pans, allowing them to touch.

  3. Set the pans in a warm place to rise until light.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

  5. Turn the buns out of the pan, then wash them with a mixture of thin molasses and water.

  6. Dust with white sugar before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough that holds the buns together.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Sponge
Provides yeast fermentation that makes the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture so the flour forms a soft, workable dough.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Rising lets yeast produce gas that expands the dough; under-proofed buns stay dense, while the warm place helps the yeast work steadily.

“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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