Why it works: Flour and milk 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 ↓
Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl.
Add the yeast and enough warm milk to form a stiff dough.
Knead the dough on a floured surface for 15-20 minutes.
Place the dough in a deep pan, cover with a warm towel, and let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Cut off a piece of dough, knead it for 8-10 minutes, adding flour as needed.
Fill small tins with the dough three-quarters full and dent the rolls with a knife.
Let the rolls rest for a few minutes before baking.
Shape the remaining dough into loaves and bake.
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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and milk 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
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