Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Poor Man S Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix butter milk (or sour milk), soda, salt, and flour until dough is stiff as soda biscuit dough.
Cut dough into three pieces.
Handle dough as little as possible.
Roll each piece to an inch thick.
Bake and serve
Place in a dripping pan and bake twenty or thirty minutes in a hot oven.
When done, wrap in a bread cloth.
Eat while warm, breaking open as you would a biscuit.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Buttermilk (in the method)
- Its acidity reacts with the soda to produce gas, helping the bread rise.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acid in buttermilk to release carbon dioxide, lifting the dough.
- Flour (in the method)
- Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
The step that matters
Handle dough as little as possible. Mixing and kneading develop gluten, which makes biscuit-style dough tough. Light handling keeps the bread tender and flaky.
“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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