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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A yeasted cake made with eggs, milk, water, butter, flour, baking soda, and salt, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat eggs lightly and stir into warm water mixed with warm milk.

  2. Add salt, baking soda, and melted butter.

  3. Pour mixture onto sifted flour in a bowl.

  4. Dissolve yeast in warm water and beat into batter for five minutes.

Rise and bake

  1. Transfer batter to well-greased mold and let rise for six hours or until very light.

  2. Bake in steady oven at 350°F for 45 minutes.

  3. Cover with paper after 15 minutes, remove to brown for last 10 minutes.

  4. Turn out onto hot plate.

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. Butter + flourtop 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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the batter as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its main structure.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, making the cake light and airy.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that help the crust brown.

The step that matters

Long rise until very light. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to lighten the batter. Stopping early leaves a dense cake, while a warm, well-greased mold helps the batter rise evenly and release cleanly.

“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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