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Scotch Currant Bun

A yeast dough bun with raisins, currants, spices, and candied peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Scotch Currant Bun

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Add a little salt to the flour, and mix with yeast and warm water, as if for bread.

  2. Set in a warm place to rise.

  3. When risen, work into it the butter slightly warmed, and let rise again for an hour.

  4. Have the fruits prepared in advance, and slightly warmed when the dough is ready for them.

Add the filling

  1. Mix the sugar, spices, salt, pepper and lemon peel together and work into the dough.

  2. Keep the latter by the fire to keep warm.

  3. Butter the baking tins and heat them.

  4. Take out about i the dough, mix it well with the fruit until smooth.

  5. Roll out the remaining dough very thin, and line the pans with it, keeping a piece to cover with.

  6. Fill in with the mixture about i full, smooth it over, wet the edges of the paste lining and put on the thinly rolled covers.

Bake

  1. Brush the top with beaten eggs, prick it with a fork, and pierce with a skewer in several places down to the bottom of the tins.

  2. Let the buns stand to rise again for an hour, set them in the oven and bake slowly for 2 or 3 hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

529Calories
14 gProtein
2 gFat
115 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. 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.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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, which traps gas and holds the buns together while they bake.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas that makes the dough rise before and after shaping.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer texture.
Currants (in the method)
Adds concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces to the filling.
Raisins
Adds sweetness and chewy texture to the filling.
Eggs (in the method)
Brushed on top to help the surface brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Pierce the buns down to the tin bottom before baking. Piercing lets steam and gas escape from the thick filling, so the buns cook through evenly instead of trapping moisture and turning doughy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, raisin):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Datesfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin. 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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