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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A sweet, yeasted cake made with eggs, milk, lard, sugar, salt, yeast, and flour, 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 flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sally Lunn

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sweet milk, lard, sugar, salt, and yeast.

  2. Gradually add flour until a stiff batter forms.

Rise and bake

  1. Divide the batter between two pie pans.

  2. Let the batter rise until doubled in size.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Once baked, split the cakes with a silk thread and butter them before serving 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 + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Provide structure and richness, helping the cakes set and hold their shape.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the bread a light crumb.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps it soft.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast, adds sweetness, and helps the crust brown.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps create a soft, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to lift the batter. Underproofed batter bakes dense, while overproofed batter can collapse and taste sour.

“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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