Skip to main content
Main

Boiled Loaf

Four rolls of bread boiled in milk, served with a butter sauce flavored with wine, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Boiled Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the bread

  1. Pour a quart of boiling milk over four little rolls of bread and cover them.

  2. Turn the rolls occasionally until they are saturated with the milk.

Boil

  1. Tie the rolls very tight in cloths and boil them for an hour.

Serve with butter sauce

  1. Lay the boiled rolls in a dish and pour a little melted butter over them.

  2. For the sauce, melt butter in a pot, seasoning it with wine, sugar, and grated nutmeg.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

161Calories
8 gProtein
9 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

  1. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread rolls
Absorb the hot milk and swell into a soft, tender body that holds its shape when boiled.
Milk
Provides the moisture that softens the dry bread until it is fully saturated.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness, giving the rolls and the sauce a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the butter and the wine in the sauce.
Nutmeg
Contributes a warm aromatic flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Tie the rolls very tight in cloths. The soaked bread is soft and swells while boiling. A tight cloth holds it in a compact shape; a loose tie lets the rolls spread and fall apart in the water.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Marjoramfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes