Skip to main content
Dessert

Raspberry Buns

Sweet buns made with flour, lard, egg, baking soda, cream of tartar, sugar, and raspberry jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Raspberry Buns

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, lard, egg, cream of tartar, baking soda, and sugar until combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Take about 1 oz of the mixture, spread it out, and place ½ teaspoon of raspberry jam in the center.

  2. Fold the dough over the jam to enclose it.

  3. Place the buns on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

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

  5. Flour + raspberrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,262 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 main structure of the dough once it sets in the oven.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and keeps the buns short.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with the baking soda to lift the buns.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas that makes the buns rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Enclosing the jam. If the dough is not sealed fully around the jam, the filling can leak and burn during baking. Keeping the jam centered and folding the dough evenly over it holds the filling in place.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, cream, 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.

You might also like

Raspberry JamRaspberry Jam150 recipesRaspberry CreamRaspberry Cream82 recipesRaspberry IceRaspberry Ice29 recipesRaspberry Ice CreamRaspberry Ice Cream24 recipes