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Bread

Sally Lunn

A yeasted wholemeal bread with butter, milk, and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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

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 the dough

  1. Warm the milk and butter together in a pan.

  2. Rub the yeast smooth with the sugar, then add the warm milk and butter mixture.

  3. Gradually stir this mixture into the flour.

  4. Add the slightly beaten egg and mix until smooth.

Rise and bake

  1. Divide the dough into two portions and place in well-greased tins.

  2. Set the tins in a warm place for 1 hour to rise.

  3. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake for about 15 minutes.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Allinson wholemeal flour
Provides the gluten network and structure that holds the risen loaf.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas, which makes the dough rise and become airy.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough, giving a softer crumb.
Salt butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and its sugars aid browning in the crust.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast so it becomes active and rises well.

The step that matters

Rising the dough. The dough must rise in a warm place long enough for the yeast to produce enough gas. Under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and lose its structure.

“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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