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Bread

French Rusks

A dry biscuit made from scalded milk, butter, sugar, salt, yeast, flour, eggs, vanilla, and water, baked into rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

French Rusks

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Add butter, sugar, and salt to scalded milk.

  2. When lukewarm, add dissolved yeast cake and three cups flour.

  3. Cover and let rise.

  4. Add egg, egg yolks well beaten, and enough flour to knead.

  5. Let rise again.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape dough as Parker House Rolls.

  2. Before baking, make three parallel creases on top of each roll.

  3. When nearly done, brush over with whites of eggs beaten slightly, diluted with one tablespoon cold water and vanilla.

  4. Sprinkle with sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

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

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Yeast cake
Produces gas that makes the dough rise into a light, airy crumb.
Flour
Forms gluten, the structure that holds the dough together as it rises.
Butter
Adds fat, softening the crumb and adding richness.
Eggs
Add structure and richness; the beaten whites give a glossy finish when brushed on.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the top brown in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. Yeast needs warmth and enough time to produce gas. If the dough rises too briefly, the rolls turn dense; if it rises too long, the structure weakens and the rolls can collapse.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, sugar, flour, egg. 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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