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 ↓
Poor Toast and Good Toast
Ingredients
Directions
For poor toast, use slightly sour or raw bread. Toast it over a hot fire until burnt and bitter. Spread with strong butter and stack slices to cool before serving.
For good toast, hold stale bread a short distance from a clear fire until slightly dried. For fresh bread, toast on a grate in a hot oven until dried.
Use a toast fork for even toasting. Serve hot in a toast-holder or on a plate. Avoid stacking slices to prevent them from becoming tough and clammy.
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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