Name: Sally Lunn’s Tea-Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pint warm milk; ¼ pint thick small beer yeast; Flour (enough to make a batter); 2 ounces lump sugar; ¼ pint warm milk (for dissolving sugar); ¼ pound butter (rubbed into flour very fine); 4 eggs (optional)

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sally Lunn’s Tea-Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

1 pint warm milk
¼ pint thick small beer yeast
Flour (enough to make a batter)
2 ounces lump sugar
¼ pint warm milk (for dissolving sugar)
¼ pound butter (rubbed into flour very fine)
4 eggs (optional)

Directions

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

Make the sponge

Combine warm milk and yeast with enough flour to make a batter in a pan.
Cover and let rise for about 2 hours until doubled in size.

Mix the dough

Dissolve sugar in warm milk and add to the mixture.
Beat in the eggs if using.
Rub butter into flour until fine, then mix into batter.
Let dough stand for 30 minutes.

Shape and bake

Shape into cakes and place on baking tins.
Allow to rise, then bake in a quick oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + beertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together298 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Yeast: Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the dough rise and turn light.
Flour: Forms the batter and dough structure that holds the risen gas as the cakes set.
Butter: Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set and the cakes hold their shape.
Milk: Hydrates the flour and yeast, giving the dough its moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise fully before baking. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to double the dough. Under-proofed cakes stay dense, while the gas trapped in the structure is what gives a light, open crumb after 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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Sally Lunn’s Tea-Cakes