Name: Milk Bread, with a Sponge
Ingredients: one pint of scalding milk on one tablespoonful each of butter; one-half teaspoonful salt; one-quarter cup yeast; one-half cup if mixed in the morning; one-half cups of flour; one tablespoonful each of butter; salt

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 ↓

Milk Bread, with a Sponge

Ingredients

one pint of scalding milk on one tablespoonful each of butter
one-half teaspoonful salt
one-quarter cup yeast
one-half cup if mixed in the morning
one-half cups of flour
one tablespoonful each of butter
salt

Directions

Pour one pint of scalding milk on one tablespoonful each of butter and sugar and one-half teaspoonful salt; when lukewarm add one-quarter cup yeast (one-half cup if mixed in the morning). Stir in three and one-half cups of flour and beat well. Let it rise over night or till very light, then add enough more flour to knead and work it till smooth and fine grained. Let it rise in the bowl, cutting down two or three times. This makes an excellent rule for tea-biscuit, Parker-House and other rolls, and by doubling the measure of butter and adding the white of an egg well beaten, you have the delicious White Mountain rolls.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

706Calories

21 gProtein

21 gFat

107 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
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.

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Cornbread345 recipes

Bread Pudding336 recipes

Milk Bread Rolls242 recipes

Potato Bread124 recipes

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Milk Bread, with a Sponge