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Dessert

North Carolina Buns

A sweet yeast‑free bun made with butter, flour, sour milk, sugar, eggs, brandy, raisins, citron, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

North Carolina Buns

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until combined.

  5. Stir in the brandy, raisins, citron, and nutmeg.

  6. Pour the batter into long tin pans.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

  2. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the buns a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the buns together as they set in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and adds moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas, helping the buns rise.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Sugar
Sweetens the buns and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the buns rise uniformly rather than in pockets.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

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