Skip to main content
Dessert

Currant Bun

A sweet roll made with raisins, currants, almonds, citrus peel, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Currant Bun

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Make a hole in the dough.

  2. Add the butter.

  3. Let it melt by the fire.

  4. Work the melted butter into the dough.

Fill and shape

  1. Mix the fruit and spices into the remaining dough.

  2. Press the mixture into a pan.

  3. Shape it with your hands.

  4. Line the pan with the leftover dough.

  5. Fill it with the fruit mixture.

  6. Cover with dough.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 3 hours.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sweetness, moisture and chewy body to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the dough as it is worked in.
Bread dough
Forms the structure that holds the filling and bakes into the bun.
Orange peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavour to the fruit filling.
Citron peel
Adds candied citrus flavour and chewy texture to the filling.
Ground ginger
Contributes warm, pungent spice aroma to the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, almond, orange, nutmeg, sugar, butter, bread):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, almond, orange, nutmeg, sugar, butter, bread. 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.

More currant bun recipes

Scotch 5 See all 12 →

You might also like

Soft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesGingerbreadGingerbread25 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipes