Name: Welsh Harvest Buns
Ingredients: 1 pound of flour; 2 ounces of clarified fat; 1½ ounces of currants; 1 ounce of sugar; 1 tablespoon of barm (or 1 teaspoon of baking powder); skim milk (enough to wet the mixture)

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Welsh Harvest Buns

four buns

Ingredients

1 pound of flour
2 ounces of clarified fat
1½ ounces of currants
1 ounce of sugar
1 tablespoon of barm (or 1 teaspoon of baking powder)
skim milk (enough to wet the mixture)

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

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

Rub clarified fat into flour until well combined.
Add currants, sugar, and barm (or baking powder) to the flour mixture.
Gradually add skim milk until dough forms.

Shape and bake

Shape dough into four large buns or cakes.
Place buns on a baking sheet and bake 20–25 minutes 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.

Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + curranttop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,077 recipes

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 of the buns as the milk hydrates it.
Clarified fat: Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the crumb and keep the buns short.
Barm: Leavening agent that makes the buns rise and become light.
Currants: Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the buns.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.