Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
To Make Hot Buttered Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Cut even slices of bread, about 1 inch thick.
Toast the slices before a bright fire without burning them.
Once toasted to a nice color, place on a hot plate.
Cut butter into small pieces and place on the toast.
Set the toast before the fire until the butter begins to melt.
Spread the melted butter lightly over the toast.
Trim off the crust and ragged edges.
Cut each slice into 4 pieces and serve immediately.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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