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Bread

Bun Loaf

A yeast‑free loaf of flour, raisins, currants, candied peel, citron, brown sugar, treacle, lard or butter, allspice, baked with buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Bun Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix the flour and baking soda in a large bowl.

  2. Add the raisins, currants, candied peel, citron, brown sugar, treacle, lard or butter, and allspice, then mix well.

  3. Gradually add buttermilk until the mixture reaches the right consistency.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into deep tins.

  2. Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) until risen and cooked through.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  5. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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 of the loaf as its proteins and starches set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and treacle to produce gas that makes the loaf rise.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture to the finished loaf.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavour to the loaf.
Treacle
Adds dark sweetness and moisture, and its acidity helps the baking soda react.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour through the batter.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at a low temperature. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets the acidic liquid, so the batter should go into the tins promptly. A slow, low oven lets the loaf rise and set through to the centre before the crust over-browns.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, sugar, butter, allspice, buttermilk. 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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