Skip to main content
Bread

Sally Lunn

A yeasted sweet bread loaf made with flour, milk, water, yeast, butter, eggs, salt, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter 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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs steadily for four minutes.

  2. In a bowl, mix warm water, warm milk, melted butter, and dissolved baking soda.

  3. Carefully mix in the salted flour.

  4. Fold in the beaten eggs until well combined.

Rise and bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake mold.

  2. Let it rise until light, at least 6 hours or overnight in winter.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes if in one loaf, or 30 minutes if in two.

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. Milk + buttertop 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 + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Gluten in the flour forms the network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Yeast ferments sugars and releases gas, which makes the batter rise and turn light.
Eggs
Eggs add structure and richness, and help the batter hold its risen shape.
Butter
Melted butter adds fat, giving a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Milk
Milk adds moisture and softness, and helps the crust brown lightly.

The step that matters

Let it rise until light. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas and stretch the gluten network. Rising too briefly leaves a dense, heavy crumb, while the full rise builds the light, open 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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes