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 ↓
Bread Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sauce
Sift two cupfuls of dry bread-crumbs.
Put a pint of milk and a small sliced onion on the fire.
When the milk is scalded, remove the onion and add enough fine crumbs to thicken it.
Season with a tablespoonful of butter, a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper and nutmeg.
Fry the crumbs
Put the coarse crumbs into a pan with a tablespoonful of butter and sauté them a light brown, stirring all the time.
Add a dash of paprika.
Serve
Serve the fried crumbs on the dish with the game.
Serve the sauce in a boat.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Nutmeg | 1 tsp ground (2.2g) | 12 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| 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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,997 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 crumbs
- Absorb the hot milk and swell, thickening the liquid into a sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the crumbs thicken into a smooth sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel, and browns the fried crumbs.
The step that matters
Thickening the milk with fine crumbs. Add the fine crumbs only after the milk is scalded and the onion is removed. Starch in the crumbs swells as it absorbs liquid, so the sauce thickens. Too many crumbs make it stiff, and too few leave it thin.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, milk, butter, pepper):
- Cinnamonfits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Sagefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, milk, butter, pepper. 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.
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