Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Milk Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, butter or lard, and salt.
Add the scalded milk and let it cool to lukewarm.
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and add it to the mixture.
Stir in flour until a stiff dough forms.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead until smooth and springy, using the seventh cup of flour as needed.
Brush the dough lightly with melted lard, cover, and let it rise in a warm place (70 to 80°F) until doubled in size.
Once risen, cut the dough down and knead slightly without removing it from the bowl.
Shape and bake
When it has doubled in size again, turn it onto a floured board and divide it into three equal parts, each weighing one pound.
Shape each part into loaves and place two loaves in a buttered pan, brushing between them with melted butter, and the remaining loaf in a smaller pan.
Cover and let rise until light.
Bake in a preheated oven at 360 to 400°F for 45 minutes.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter and flour 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 gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
- Milk
- Adds richness, softness, and browning from its milk sugars and proteins.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the loaves soft.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Kneading until smooth and springy. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Adding too much flour or stopping early leaves a dense, crumbly loaf that rises poorly.
“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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