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Scotch Currant Bun

A sweet yeast‑less bun filled with currants and sultanas, topped with a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 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.

Make the crust

  1. Crumble the butter finely into the flour for the crust.

  2. Add the sugar, salt, and baking powder to the flour mixture.

  3. Beat the egg.

  4. Mix half a teacup of cold water into the beaten egg; set aside a little in a cup.

  5. Make a stiff paste with the remaining mixture and roll it out into a thin sheet.

  6. Cut pieces for the bottom, top, and sides of the cake.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter the inside of a cake pan.

  2. Line the pan with the paste, brushing the inside with the reserved egg.

  3. Moisten the currants and sultanas with milk and pack them into the cake pan.

  4. Cover with the top piece of paste.

  5. Brush the top with egg.

  6. Prick the top with a fork.

  7. Bake for 2 to 3 hours in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the stiff paste that gives the crust its structure and holds the fruit.
Butter
Crumbled into the flour, it adds richness and a tender, flaky texture to the crust.
Egg
Enriches the crust paste and, brushed on, helps the surface brown and set.
Currants
Provide the main fruit filling, adding sweetness and moisture as they plump.
Sultanas
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the fruit filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the crust and adds to browning of the surface.

The step that matters

Pack the moistened fruit into the pan. Fruit soaked in milk must be packed firmly so the cake holds its shape and does not leave air gaps that cause collapse or uneven baking over the long bake.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, orange, sugar, flour, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, orange, sugar, flour, milk, nutmeg, 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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