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Dessert

Pineapple Buns

A sweet bun made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, buttermilk, pineapple, and pineapple essence, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pineapple Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and grease a baking sheet.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar.

  3. Add the chopped pineapple.

  4. Beat the eggs well, reserving a little to brush on top of the buns.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Mix the essence of pineapple with the remaining eggs and combine with the dry ingredients.

  2. Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar with the buttermilk, then add to the mixture.

  3. Form the dough into round buns with floured hands and place on the greased baking sheet.

Bake

  1. Brush the tops with the reserved egg and sprinkle with fine sugar.

  2. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the buns together as they bake.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add moisture, and the reserved egg gives the tops a glossy golden colour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and buttermilk to produce gas that makes the buns rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the mixture so it reacts with the baking soda, helping the buns rise.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that activate the baking soda for lift and softness.

The step that matters

Mix the baking soda and cream of tartar with the buttermilk, then add to the mixture.. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Adding it to the buttermilk and cream of tartar and then folding in promptly lets the gas form in the dough, so the buns rise in the oven rather than going flat.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, cream, buttermilk):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, cream, buttermilk. 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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