Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Coffee Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, milk, melted butter, eggs, sugar, and dissolved yeast.
Let the mixture rise overnight.
Shape and rise
The next morning, stir down the dough and let it rise again in the pans.
When the dough is light, push it down in the pan.
Once it rises again, knead it gently and add raisins or currants if desired.
Put the dough into the pans and let it rise until light.
Bake and finish
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Once baked, pour a thick syrup made of sugar and water over the bread.
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the bread's airy crumb together.
- Yeast
- Produces gas during rising, which makes the dough light and open.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness, and helps browning on the crust.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during rising and adds sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Letting the dough rise until light before baking. The dough needs enough rising for the yeast to create gas and lighten the crumb. Too little rise gives a dense loaf, and too much can collapse the structure.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Peachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, syrup. 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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