Why it works: Milk and flour 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 ↓
Vienna 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.
Prepare the dough
Dissolve the yeast cake in warm water.
Scald the milk, then add salt and cool to lukewarm.
Combine the milk with the dissolved yeast and two-thirds of the flour.
Knead thoroughly for 10 minutes and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Add half of the remaining flour, using the rest to flour the board.
Knead for 20 to 30 minutes and allow to rise again.
Shape and bake
Shape into loaves pointed at the ends and place in rounded pans.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.
Brush with egg white or starch-paste for a glaze when nearly done.
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 + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour 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 gluten network that gives the loaves their structure and chew.
- Yeast cake
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Milk
- Adds softness, richness and browning from milk sugars to the crumb and crust.
- Egg white or starch-paste
- Forms a glossy, shiny glaze on the crust as it bakes.
The step that matters
Kneading and the second rise. Kneading builds the gluten network that traps the yeast's gas; kneading long enough and letting the dough rise fully gives a light, well-structured loaf instead of a dense one.
“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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