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Dessert

A Rich French Breakfast Calte, or Sally Lunn

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Rich French Breakfast Calte, or 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 leaven

  1. For the leaven, mix 3 ounces of flour with yeast and warm cream or milk to form a paste. Cover and let rise near heat for 30 minutes.

Make and rise the dough

  1. In a bowl, make a hollow in the remaining flour. Add salt, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and warm cream. Mix until smooth.

  2. Flatten the mixture on a surface, spread the leaven over it, and knead lightly until well combined.

  3. Place the dough in a well-buttered cake mold and let it rise until doubled in size.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the top with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour, avoiding over-browning.

  2. Once baked, turn out of the mold, slice, and pour melted butter over the slices. Reassemble and serve immediately.

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Forms the structure that holds the risen crumb together.
Yeast
Produces gas in the leaven and dough, making the cake rise and become light.
Egg yolks
Add richness, tenderness and colour to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
Cream
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.

The step that matters

Baking without over-browning. The top browns quickly because of the sugar, butter and egg wash, so it can darken before the centre is fully set. Watching the colour and keeping the oven steady helps the crumb bake through evenly without a burnt crust.

“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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