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Bread

Sally Lunn

A yeast bread made with flour, butter, eggs, salt, sweet milk, and yeast, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, butter, eggs, salt, and sweet milk.

  2. Add yeast to achieve a proper dough consistency.

  3. Mix the dough in the morning (9 AM in winter, 11 AM in summer).

  4. Let the dough rise until about 4 PM.

Bake and serve

  1. Shape the dough into a round form and place it in pans.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

  3. Butter the bread before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 structure that holds the bread's shape as it rises and bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavor.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set and feel soft.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and sweetness, and helps the dough become smooth and pliable.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the bread an airy texture.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until about 4 PM. Yeast needs enough time and warmth to produce gas and expand the dough. Rising too briefly leaves a dense loaf, while over-proofing weakens the gluten structure and can collapse the crumb.

“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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