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Bun Loaf

A yeast‑free loaf of flour, raisins, currants, candied peel, citron, brown sugar, treacle, lard, allspice, baked at 300°F.

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. In a large bowl, mix the flour and baking soda well.

  2. Add the raisins, currants, candied peel, citron, brown sugar, treacle, lard (or butter), and allspice. Mix until combined.

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

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into deep tins and 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
Provides the main structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and treacle to release gas, helping the loaf rise.
Raisins
Add moisture and natural sweetness throughout the loaf.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown during baking.
Treacle
Adds deep sweetness, moisture and a dark colour, and gives acidity that works with the baking soda.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the loaf moist.

The step that matters

Adding the buttermilk. Buttermilk must be added gradually until the batter reaches the right consistency. Too much liquid makes the loaf dense and gummy, while too little leaves it dry, and the batter's moisture controls how well the baking soda lifts the crumb.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, raisin, sugar, molasses, 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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