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Sally Lunns

A yeast‑leavened, buttered bread bun made with flour, egg, butter, yeast, sugar, and milk.

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 Lunns

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. Sift the yeast and sugar together.

  2. Warm the milk and add it to the yeast mixture.

  3. Rub the butter into the flour.

  4. Beat the egg well and add it to the yeast and milk mixture.

  5. Mix all ingredients together with your hands.

  6. Knead the dough until smooth and shape it into two cakes.

Rise and bake

  1. Grease two cake tins and place the dough in them.

  2. Let the dough rise for one hour.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for fifteen minutes.

  4. When removing from the oven, brush the tops with a little warm butter.

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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the bread's rise and crumb.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough and enrich its texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and softness.
German yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Milk
Provides moisture and helps the dough become soft and pliable.
Castor sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise for one hour. Yeast needs enough time in a warm place to produce gas and expand the dough. Rising too short leaves the buns dense, while the dough must be fully risen before baking to get a light texture.

“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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