Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Blanche Kammerer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
In a bowl, make a hollow in one quart of flour.
Add one teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of sugar, two large tablespoons of butter, and pour over one pint of boiling milk.
Let stand until lukewarm.
Add one yeast cake dissolved in a little warm water.
Stir in enough flour to make a sponge, leaving a shell of flour around.
Cover and put in a warm place to raise.
Shape and rise
When full of bubbles, mix stiff, adding more flour.
Let raise.
Cut down with a knife.
Let raise again.
Pat or roll out one-half inch thick.
Brush with melted butter.
Cut with a biscuit cutter.
Crease with the blunt edge of a knife.
Fold over, cover with cloth, and let raise until light.
Bake
Brush with melted butter or egg and bake for twenty minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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 + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the dough structure that holds the gas produced by the yeast.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and turn light and airy.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, and its proteins help give the crumb a tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness and softens the crumb.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until light before baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas. Rolls baked before they are full of air come out dense, because the gluten network has not stretched to hold the trapped gas.
“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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