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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A yeasted sweet bread with eggs, baked in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 sponge

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Add the butter to the milk.

  3. Set the mixture aside to cool.

  4. When lukewarm, add the yeast, salt, sugar, and flour to the mixture.

  5. Beat steadily for 5 minutes.

  6. Cover and set in a warm place for 2 hours to rise until very light.

Add the eggs and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks until very light. Add the yolks to the batter.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the whites until very light. Gently fold in the whites.

  3. Set the batter in a warm place for 15 minutes to rise.

  4. Pour the mixture into a well-greased turk's head mold.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes.

  6. Serve hot.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 gluten network that gives the bun its structure.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and tenderness, while whipped whites lighten the batter.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Milk
Provides moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour.

The step that matters

Folding in the whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that lightens the batter. Stirring them vigorously deflates that foam, so fold in gently with a spatula until just combined.

“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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