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Bread

Sally Lunn

A yeasted bread roll made with milk, eggs, butter, flour, sugar, and yeast, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Add the butter.

  3. Set aside to cool.

  4. Add the yeast, salt, sugar, and flour.

  5. Beat steadily for 5 minutes.

  6. Cover and set in a warm place for 2 hours to rise until very light.

Add the eggs

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs separately until very light.

  2. Beat the whites of the eggs separately until very light.

  3. Add the yolks to the batter.

  4. Add the whites to the batter.

  5. Stir lightly and carefully.

  6. Set again in a warm place for 15 minutes to rise.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well‑greased turk's‑head mold.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 minutes.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that holds the bread's structure and airy crumb.
Eggs
Whipped yolks and whites add lightness, richness, and structure to the batter.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during rising, which makes the bread light and open.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and contributes richness.
Milk
Provides liquid for hydrating the flour and softening the crumb.

The step that matters

Stir lightly and carefully after adding the whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the second rise and the final crumb come out denser.

“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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