Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
London Buns
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and 1½ teaspoons of baking powder.
Add the butter and crumble it until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the diced orange peel.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add them to the mixture, reserving about 1 tablespoon.
Mix well and add just enough buttermilk to moisten the mixture, keeping it stiff.
Shape and bake
Grease a flat baking tray and shape the mixture into balls the size of eggs, placing them on the tray with 2 inches apart.
Brush the tops with the reserved egg and sprinkle with small pieces of lump sugar.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 15 minutes, until golden brown.
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.
-
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the buns together as they bake.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the crumb and add richness.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture and add moisture and structure to the dough.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the tops brown as they bake.
- Baking powder (in the method)
- Releases gas during baking so the buns rise and become light.
The step that matters
Keeping the mixture stiff when adding buttermilk. Too much liquid makes the dough slack, so the buns spread and lose their shape instead of holding a rounded form in the oven.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, buttermilk):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, 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.
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.