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Dessert

Paris Buns

Paris buns are sweet rolls made with flour, lard, sugar, eggs, milk, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

Paris Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather warm oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the lard and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well for 7 to 8 minutes.

  3. Mix in the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  4. Gradually add the milk to form a light paste.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake on baking sheets in a warm oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 15 minutes.

  2. Dust the tops with sugar before serving.

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

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Flour and milk 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the buns together as they bake.
Lard
Creamed with sugar to add tenderness and a rich, short texture.
Castor sugar
Creamed with the lard to add sweetness and help create a light texture.
Eggs
Add structure, moisture, and richness, and help the dough rise when beaten.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps bind the flour into a soft, workable paste.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the buns rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda, helping the buns lift.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk to form a light paste. Adding milk slowly lets the flour absorb liquid evenly, giving a smooth paste rather than a lumpy or overly wet dough that bakes unevenly.

“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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