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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A sweet cake with a nutmeg and vinegar sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat 1 cup of sugar with 3 eggs until well combined.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar to 1 cup of milk and mix with the sugar and eggs.

  3. Stir in enough flour to create a thin batter.

  4. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of salt, then stir briskly.

Bake and make the sauce

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan and bake at 400°F (200°C).

  2. For the sauce, combine ½ pint of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

  3. Add nutmeg and a little vinegar or lemon juice to taste, then heat until combined.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air and add structure as the batter sets.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, helping the baking soda react and giving a lighter, finer crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once it is mixed into the batter and baked.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda and stirring briskly. Baking soda reacts with the acid from the cream of tartar right away, so the batter should be stirred and baked promptly to keep the gas bubbles that make the cake rise.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, milk, flour, butter, sauce. 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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