Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Bread-making
Ingredients
Directions
Knead the dough until smooth and elastic, using minimal flour to prevent sticking.
Form the dough into a round mass or large loaf.
Sprinkle flour in a bread pan and place the loaf inside.
Cover the loaf and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 to 2 hours.
Knead the dough down in the pan, divide it into equal parts, and shape each into a smooth, oblong loaf.
Place the loaves in a greased baking pan and grease the tops with salted lard or butter.
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.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
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