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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A sweet yeast bread made with cream, eggs, Graham flour, white flour, 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: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 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 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Warm the cream to blood heat.

  2. Beat in the egg yolks and stir in the yeast.

  3. If the weather is cold, slightly warm the flour.

  4. Stir in the Graham flour first, then the white flour until the batter is stiff.

  5. Fold in the whipped egg whites and beat thoroughly.

Rise and bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-oiled pan and let it rise.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a broom straw comes out clean.

  3. Serve warm from the bake pan.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and flour 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

Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the bread a tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites add lift and a lighter texture.
Yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the bun rise.
White flour
Builds the gluten network that gives the bun its structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, adding lift.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and helps stabilise the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that lifts the crumb. Stirring vigorously or overmixing knocks that air out, leaving a denser bun.

“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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