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 ↓
French Biscuit
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Combine four pints of flour, four eggs (leaving out the yolks of two), four teaspoonfuls of white sugar, one teacupful of good yeast, one tablespoonful of butter or sweet lard, a little salt, and one pint of fresh milk to make dough.
Work the dough well.
Let it rise.
Shape and bake
Work the dough again.
Roll out thin.
Cut into biscuits.
Lard one side and lay another on that already greased with lard.
Let them rise again.
Bake in a rather quick oven.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
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 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
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).
-
Milk + teatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
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).
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 bulk of the dough and gives the biscuits their structure.
- Eggs
- Add richness and help bind the dough and set its crumb during baking.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour so the dough can form and develop gluten.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour.
- White sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
The step that matters
Let it rise. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas; under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough loses its structure and can collapse.
“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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