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Dessert

London Buns

A sweet yeast dough bun with sultanas, candied peel, lemon rind, and sugar topping baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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London Buns

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 ↓

London Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the flour through a wire sieve.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour.

  3. Add the castor sugar, baking powder, sultanas, and chopped candied peel.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix with a little milk.

  5. Combine the egg mixture with the flour mixture to form a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into nine heaps on a greased baking tray.

  2. Brush each heap with a little egg or milk.

  3. Break the lump sugar into coarse pieces and sprinkle over each bun.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the stiff dough that holds the buns together.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the buns.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the buns rise and become lighter.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Brush each heap with a little egg or milk. A thin, even coat of egg or milk before baking gives the surface an even golden colour and sheen. Too much liquid can pool and make the bun tops soggy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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