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 ↓
Soft Brown Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Mix the dough
Combine two pounds coarse brown flour, one quarter pound white flour, two large spoonsful of yeast, a little salt, and a teacupful of boiled grits, a piece of lard or butter the size of an egg.
Make it up with tepid milk and water.
Bake
Bake slowly in loaves when light.
If compressed yeast, use one-half cake.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Lard | 1 tbsp (12.8g) | 115 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cake | 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.
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Coarse brown flour
- Provides the main structure and the hearty, whole-grain body of the loaf.
- White flour
- Adds gluten-forming protein, giving the loaf a softer, more elastic crumb.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Milk (in the method)
- Adds moisture and some richness, helping the dough stay soft.
The step that matters
Bake slowly in loaves when light. Yeast gas must fill the dough before baking. If the loaves go into the oven before they have risen enough, the gas is not trapped in a fine network, and the bread bakes up dense rather than light and soft.
“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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