Why it works: Sugar and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Breakfast Buns
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Let the dough rise all night.
Early in the morning, soften a generous half cupful of butter to a perfect cream; dissolve half a teaspoonful of soda, and beat both through the batter.
Beat two eggs, yolks and whites separately; then add to the batter.
Add enough more flour to make a tender dough.
Shape and rise
When well kneaded, mould into buns, set them into a buttered biscuit pan, and rise to a sponge-like biscuit.
If the sponge was very light, half or three-quarters of an hour in the morning will make them light enough.
Serve
Serve hot for breakfast.
Charmingly nice.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Eggs (in the method)
- Add structure and richness, and help the buns hold their light texture.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness in the finished buns.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the buns rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and gives the yeast food to ferment.
- Milk
- Provides moisture that helps form a soft, tender dough.
The step that matters
Judging the second rise. Yeast gas expands the dough as it proofs. Stopping too early leaves dense buns, while letting it go too long can collapse the structure, so the sponge should look light before baking.
“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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