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 ↓
German Bread
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 dough
Boil the milk and let it cool slightly.
Mix the yeast with the warm milk to create a rising.
Once light, add sugar and lard or butter, then mix in enough flour to form a soft dough.
Flour a surface and roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.
Divide the dough into two large pans.
Top and bake
Make about a dozen indentations on top with your fingers.
Place a small piece of butter in each indentation.
Mix the tablespoon of sugar with the teaspoon of cinnamon and sift over the dough.
Let the dough rise again until light.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 to 20 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Yeast
- Ferments the milk mixture to make the dough rise and become light.
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure once it is mixed and kneaded into a soft dough.
- Milk
- Provides moisture and helps form a soft dough when mixed with the yeast.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness to the dough.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise again until light. The second rise lets the yeast produce gas that expands the dough. Rising too short leaves a dense loaf, while over-rising can collapse it in the oven.
“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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