Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Brioche
Ingredients
Directions
Knead flour into a soft paste and form it into a round ball.
Place the ball in a large stewpan, score it with a knife, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until it triples in size.
On a clean surface, spread out the remaining flour and create a hollow in the center.
Add coarse sea salt and sugar to the hollow, pour in a little water to dissolve, then add butter and break in the eggs.
Mix everything together with your hands until well combined, then rub the paste with your fists to remove lumps.
Once the sponge has risen, gently mix it into the paste until fully combined.
Line a wooden bowl with a napkin, dust with flour, and transfer the brioche paste into it.
Sprinkle flour over the paste, fold the napkin over it, and place the bowl in a cool, draft-free area until the next morning.
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 + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
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