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 ↓
Paris Jockey-club Becipe for Brioche
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Sift the flour and set aside ¼ of it.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water and make a sponge with the reserved flour and a little more water.
Let the sponge rise in a warm place until doubled in volume.
Mix and rise the dough
Make a hole in the remaining flour, add salt, sugar, and water to dissolve.
Beat the butter and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Combine the egg mixture with the sponge, beating until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl.
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 4 hours.
Turn the dough out onto a board, spread it, and fold it over itself four times.
Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise for another 2 hours.
Repeat the spreading and folding process, then refrigerate for 2 hours.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other, and form a ball with the larger piece.
Make a deep depression in the center of the large ball and place the smaller ball on top, pressing gently.
Cut two or three gashes around the top with a sharp knife.
Bake until golden brown.
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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Provides the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chewy crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives brioche its rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness, and moisture, and help the dough set and brown.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, speeds fermentation, and adds sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets the butter and egg emulsify into a smooth mixture. Adding them all at once can cause the mixture to separate, which weakens the dough's texture.
“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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