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Bread

Sally Lunn

A sweet yeast bread made with milk, butter, eggs, baking soda, yeast, and flour, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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. In a bowl, combine sweet milk, melted butter, and eggs.

  2. Stir in baking soda and yeast.

  3. Add flour gradually until a stiff sponge forms.

  4. Transfer the mixture to buttered pans and let it rise until supper.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Bake for 20 minutes.

  3. Once baked, use a sharp knife to divide the top from the bottom.

  4. Butter the inside and reassemble, then 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. Egg + flourtop 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).

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness to the sponge as it sets in the oven.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, lifting the sponge so it rises and becomes airy.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and holds the rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with acid in the batter to release gas, adding extra lift.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and tenderness, and helps the dough hydrate with the flour.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the sponge rise. The sponge needs enough time to rise fully before baking. Yeast gas builds the open crumb, and an underproofed sponge will bake dense and heavy.

“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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