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Dessert

Excellent Soda Buns

A sweet bun made with butter, sugar, flour, soda, eggs, candied orange rind, nutmeg, and cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Excellent Soda Buns

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Work into half a pound of flour three ounces of butter until it is quite in crumbs.

  2. Mix thoroughly with them four ounces of sugar, the slightest pinch of salt, an ounce, or rather more, of candied orange rind shredded extremely small, and a little grated nutmeg.

  3. To these pour boiling a small teacupful of cream, or of milk when this cannot be had. Mix them a little.

  4. Add immediately two eggs, leaving out the white of one.

  5. When the whole is well mingled, dust over, and beat well into it less than half a teaspoonful of good carbonate of soda, perfectly free from lumps.

Bake

  1. Rub an oven-tin with butter.

  2. Drop the buns upon it with a spoon.

  3. Send them to a moderate oven.

  4. When they are firm to the touch in every part, and well coloured underneath, they are done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

696Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)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 Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Rubbed into the flour, it coats the flour and makes the buns tender and rich.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as the buns set in the oven.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the mixture to produce gas, helping the buns rise and lighten.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the buns brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the carbonate of soda. Soda must be evenly mixed and free from lumps, or it creates pockets of harsh flavour and uneven rising. It needs to be beaten in thoroughly so the gas forms evenly through the dough.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg. 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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