Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Fried Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the coating
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Add milk, salt, and sugar; mix well.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan over medium heat.
Dip the bread slices in the egg mixture.
Fry the bread in the hot lard until light 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Egg
- Binds the milk mixture and helps the bread coat and brown in the lard.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the egg coating so the bread softens slightly as it soaks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the coating brown in the hot fat.
- Stale baker’s bread
- Forms the base; its dry crumb soaks up the egg mixture well.
The step that matters
Fry the bread in the hot lard until light brown. If the lard is not hot enough, the bread absorbs more fat and turns greasy; if it is too hot, the coating browns before the centre is warmed through. Steady medium heat gives an even golden colour.
“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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