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 ↓
Currant Buns
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Warm the milk until lukewarm, then stir in the yeast softened with a little warm water, salt, and 2½ cups of flour.
Beat the mixture hard for a few minutes and place it in a warm area to rise for about 5 hours.
Once risen, work in the butter and sugar, then add the currants dredged with flour.
Shape and bake
Use the remaining ½ cup of flour for your hands and molding board, then roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.
Cut into round cakes, place them in a buttered baking pan, and let them stand until light.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown, then brush the tops with sweetened, beaten egg white.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,475 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dough and buns together as they rise and bake.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the buns an airy crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives the buns a rich, tender texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the buns and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Currants
- Add tart, fruity pockets of flavor throughout the sweet dough.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the dough, and its sugars help browning.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise fully. Yeast needs time in a warm place to produce enough gas for a light texture. Underproofed dough stays dense and heavy, and the buns will not turn out light after baking.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, sugar. 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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