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Dessert

Scotch Spiced Bun

A fruit-filled spiced bun made with raisins, currants, candied peel, almonds, and spices, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Scotch Spiced Bun

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the raisins, currants, candied peel, almonds, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, caraway seeds, cayenne, and white pepper in a bowl.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and brandy to the mixture and combine well.

Make the dough

  1. In another bowl, rub the lard into the flour and add the coarse sea salt.

  2. Dissolve the carbonate of soda in the tepid water and moisten the flour mixture with it to form a dough.

  3. Knead the dough until smooth, then roll it out to ⅓ inch thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a plain cake tin with the rolled dough, pressing the corners for even thickness.

  2. Fill the lined tin with the fruit mixture and press it down closely.

  3. Cover the fruit with more dough, notching the edge with a knife.

  4. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for nearly three hours.

  5. Once cooled, turn the bun out of the tin.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough's structure once moistened and kneaded.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour to add fat and tenderness to the dough.
Eggs
Bind the fruit mixture and add richness and structure.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with moisture to lighten the dough and aid rising.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and moisture to the filling.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture to the fruit filling.

The step that matters

Pressing the fruit into the lined tin. Packing the fruit closely removes air pockets so the bun bakes dense and evenly, without gaps or collapse as the dough sets.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, almond, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, clove, caraway):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, clove, caraway. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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