Name: Brbad and Muffins
Ingredients: 1 quart lukewarm liquid (half water and half milk, or water alone); 2 compressed yeast cakes (or the usual quantity of liquid yeast); 1 teaspoon salt; 3 tablespoons sugar; 3 quarts well-sifted flour; 2 tablespoons lard (optional); melted butter or drippings (for greasing and brushing)

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 ↓

Brbad and Muffins

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 quart lukewarm liquid (half water and half milk, or water alone)
2 compressed yeast cakes (or the usual quantity of liquid yeast)
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 quarts well-sifted flour
2 tablespoons lard (optional)
melted butter or drippings (for greasing and brushing)

Directions

Make the dough

In a large bowl, combine lukewarm liquid and yeast, stirring until dissolved.
Add salt and sugar, mixing well.
Gradually stir in flour until the dough is stiff enough to turn out onto a board.
If desired, add lard and knead the dough until smooth and elastic.

Rise and shape

Place the dough in a greased bowl, brush with melted butter, cover, and let rise in a warm place (about 75°F) for 2 hours.
Knead the dough again, cover, and let rise for another hour or until light.
Shape the dough into loaves or rolls, place in greased pans, brush with butter, cover, and let stand for 1.5 hours.

Bake

Bake until golden brown.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Yeast: Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Lukewarm liquid: Hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast so it can activate.
Sugar: Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning in the crust.
Lard: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Rising the dough. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; rising too short or too cool leaves the bread dense, while the dough must be kneaded to develop gluten that traps that gas.

“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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Brbad and Muffins