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Scotch Currant Bun

A yeast‑free currant and raisin bun baked with spices and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Scotch Currant Bun

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.

Prepare the crust

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

  2. Mix 1 teaspoon baking powder with 4 cups flour and 1 cup butter to form a firm paste.

  3. Roll out the paste into a thin sheet.

  4. Grease a cake tin.

  5. Line the tin with the paste.

  6. Reserve a piece of paste for the top.

Make the filling

  1. Combine 4 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, raisins, currants, almonds, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, baking soda, cream of tartar, milk, and orange peel in a bowl. Mix the combined ingredients thoroughly with your hands.

  2. Place the mixture into the lined tin.

  3. Flatten the top of the mixture.

Close and bake

  1. Wet the edges of the mixture.

  2. Cover the wet edges with the reserved paste.

  3. Prick the top with a fork.

  4. Brush the top with a little beaten egg.

  5. Bake in the preheated 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Gives the paste richness and a firm, crumbly structure once baked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to lift and lighten the dense mixture.
Cream of tartar
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda for gentle rising.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture that binds the dry fruit and flour into a cohesive filling.
Currants
Provide chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges with wet paste. Wetting the edges lets the reserved paste bond to the lined crust, so the filling is enclosed and does not leak or dry out during the long bake.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, raisin, almond, ginger, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, raisin, almond, ginger, cinnamon. 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.

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