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Dessert

Sally Lunn

A sweet, yeasted bread-like cake made with flour, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, baking powder, and salt.

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.

Mix the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

  2. Beat the egg or yolks.

  3. Mix the beaten egg or yolks with the milk.

  4. Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients.

  5. Stir in the melted butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered shallow pan.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 25 minutes.

  3. Cut the baked cake into squares.

  4. Serve hot for breakfast or lunch, or as cake with fruit sauce.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the bread's crumb together as it bakes.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the crumb set and hold its shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the bread rises and becomes light.
Melted butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar, giving the batter its moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients. Stirring too vigorously once liquid meets flour develops gluten and toughens the crumb. Mix just until combined, because baking powder begins releasing gas as soon as it gets wet.

“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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