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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A baked pancake batter made with flour, lard, butter, optional sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, eggs, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Lunn

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, lard, butter, sugar (if using), cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and enough sweet milk to make a batter as thick as for pancakes.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda and cream of tartar in a little sweet milk and add it to the batter.

  4. Let the batter stand for 5 to 10 minutes.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the batter until golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the batter's shape while it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the pancake set as it heats.
Cream of tartar
Reacts with baking soda to release gas that lifts and lightens the batter.
Baking soda
Releases carbon dioxide when combined with an acid, causing the batter to rise.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes flavor and golden browning.
Sweet milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its pourable thickness.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and cream of tartar in milk. Baking soda and cream of tartar react to release carbon dioxide, which lifts the batter. Dissolving them first spreads the leavening evenly, so there are no pockets of soda or uneven rising. Baking promptly keeps the gas bubbles from escaping.

“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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