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 ↓
Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a hole in the center.
Pour in the yeast and stir lightly.
Add warm milk or cold water, and if using water, dissolve a piece of butter the size of an egg in it.
Stir in the liquid lightly without mixing all the flour.
Cover with a thick blanket or towel and let it rise in a warm place for several hours.
In the morning, add salt and mix in the remaining flour, kneading well.
Let the dough rise until light, about two hours.
Mold the dough until elastic, using minimal flour.
Shape and bake
Shape into loaves and place in baking tins, allowing them to rise until doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake until golden brown, 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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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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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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Warm milk or water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and the dough can be kneaded.
- Salt
- Tightens the gluten structure and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer texture and flavor.
The step that matters
Kneading in the remaining flour. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff and dense, so the loaves rise less and turn out 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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