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 ↓
Cream Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream sauce
Heat a pint of milk to boiling and add a piece of butter the size of an egg.
Stir a tablespoonful of flour smoothly into a cup of rich cream, and add some of the boiling milk to this.
Heat the mixture gradually and prevent the flour from lumping.
Stir the mixture into the boiling milk and let it cook a few moments.
Salt to taste.
Finish and serve
After taking from the fire, stir in a beaten egg.
Strain the mixture onto toast lightly buttered.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 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 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| 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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
What each ingredient does
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flavor and thinning the cream.
- Rich cream
- Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, silky body.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce so it coats the toast instead of running off.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor to the sauce and enriches the milk.
- Egg
- Adds richness and helps thicken the sauce when stirred in off the heat.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour into the cream. Flour lumps if added to hot liquid without being smoothly blended into cold cream first. Adding the boiling milk gradually and heating slowly keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce stays smooth and thickens evenly.
“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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