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Sally Lunns

A sweet yeast roll made with wholemeal flour, butter, sugar, and milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Sally Lunns

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 105°F (40°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the ferment

  1. Warm the milk and water to 105°F (40°C).

  2. Dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warmed milk.

  3. Beat the egg and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the wholemeal flour.

  5. Cover with a cloth.

  6. Let it rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine 14 oz. wholemeal flour, melted butter, salt, and sugar.

  2. Add the ferment to the bowl and mix until you have a smooth dough.

  3. Cover the dough with a cloth.

  4. Let it rise for another 45 minutes.

  5. Knead the dough again.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide it into 8 oz. portions.

  2. Shape each portion into a round.

  3. Place in 1 lb. cake hoops.

  4. Make a hole in the center of each round.

  5. Let them rise for 25 minutes.

  6. Brush with beaten egg or a mixture of sugar and water.

  7. Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a light crumb.
Wholemeal flour
Provides the gluten network and bulk that gives the loaf its structure.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, and helps the crumb set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and feeds the yeast, supporting the rise and browning.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that soften the crumb and promote browning.

The step that matters

Warm the milk and water to 105°F (40°C). Yeast is sensitive to heat. Liquid that is too hot can kill it, so the dough will fail to rise, while liquid that is too cool slows fermentation.

“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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