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Dessert

Sally Lunn or Tea Buns

A yeasted sweet bun made with milk, butter, eggs, and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 or Tea Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine 1 quart of milk and 1 quart of yeast.

  2. Add enough flour to create a stiff batter and let it stand for 6 to 8 hours.

  3. Stir in 1 lb of melted butter mixed with sweet milk, 4 eggs, and 1 lb of loaf sugar.

  4. Work in sufficient flour to achieve a dough consistency.

  5. Let the dough stand for 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into buns or place it in a large mold.

  2. Allow it to stand for ½ hour before baking.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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. Milk + buttertop 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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the crumb as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the crust brown during baking.
Milk
Provides moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.

The step that matters

Working in the flour to a dough consistency. Too little flour leaves a slack dough that will not hold its shape, while too much makes the bread dense and dry. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the texture by feel.

“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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