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 ↓
Baking Powder Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt five times.
Add enough milk and water to the sifted mixture to form a moist dough.
Divide the dough into four portions and shape lightly.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place in brick-shaped pans and brush the tops with milk.
Bake for one hour.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 bread as its starches set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when moistened and heated, lifting the dough so the bread rises.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and helps the tops brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Add enough milk and water to form a moist dough. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets liquid and heat, so the dough should be shaped and put into the oven promptly to keep the rise. Too little liquid leaves dry, dense bread, while too much makes it heavy and gummy.
“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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