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Dessert

Saffron Buns

Saffron buns are sweet buns flavored with saffron, cinnamon, and coriander.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Saffron and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 381 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Saffron Buns

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Add the flour, sugar, saffron, cinnamon, and crushed coriander seed to the butter.

  3. Moisten the mixture with milk and mix until combined.

  4. Form the dough into buns and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Saffron + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 main structure of the buns as its proteins and starches set when baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and helping it brown.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the buns brown in the oven.
Milk
Moistens the flour so the dough holds together and bakes up tender.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, saffron, cinnamon, 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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