Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Buns
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Warm 1½ cups of milk in a saucepan over low heat.
Dissolve ½ ounce of German yeast in a bowl.
Gradually pour the warm milk into the yeast, mixing well.
In a large bowl, combine 1 pound of flour with the milk and yeast mixture to form a dough.
Cover the bowl with a cloth.
Let the dough rise for about 1 hour.
Enrich and second rise
Warm 1½ cups of milk and 1 ounce of butter in a saucepan.
In another bowl, mix ½ pound of flour with the warm milk and butter.
Once the dough has risen, combine it with the milk and butter mixture.
Add ¼ pound of sultana raisins or currants and ¼ pound of moist sugar, mixing well.
Cover the bowl again.
Let it rise for another hour.
Shape and bake
Grease a baking tin with butter or dripping.
If you don't have a tin, grease an oven shelf instead.
Flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it.
Cut the dough into pieces using a floured knife.
Flour your hands and shape the dough into balls.
Place the buns on the greased tin.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- German yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure that traps gas and holds the buns' shape.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Sultana raisins or currants
- Add sweetness and fruity flavour throughout the buns.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise fully. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to leaven the dough; rising too briefly leaves dense buns, while the dough should be covered so it does not dry and form a skin.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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