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Bread

Sally Lunns

A sweet yeast bread with a soft, cake-like texture, baked in a mold and served sliced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Sally Lunns

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.

Make the starter

  1. Sift the flour and set aside 3 ounces.

  2. Make a hollow in the reserved flour, then add yeast and lukewarm cream and mix gradually.

  3. Place the mixture in a small saucepan to rise until doubled in size.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the remaining flour, salt, sugar, egg yolks, and warm butter.

  2. Stir in the lukewarm cream until soft.

  3. Beat the mixture with your palm for a few minutes.

  4. Add the risen yeast mixture and work until smooth and elastic.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a well-buttered 6-inch wide and 5-inch high mold and let it ferment until doubled in size.

  2. Brush the top with egg wash.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.

  4. Slice the cake horizontally.

  5. Turn the top upside down and serve.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, making the dough rise and become airy.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich flavour.
Granulated sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Lukewarm cream
Adds moisture and fat, hydrating the flour and softening the dough.

The step that matters

Work until smooth and elastic. Thorough beating develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-working leaves a dense, coarse crumb, while the dough must still be given time to ferment fully before baking.

“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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