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 ↓
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
Dissolve the yeast cake in a little of the lukewarm water.
Mix in all the ingredients and let sit overnight in a sheltered corner, covered with a cloth.
The next morning, knead the dough for 15 minutes, adding just enough flour to prevent sticking.
Shape and bake
Shape into loaves and place in greased pans, filling them no more than halfway.
Cover and let rise in a sheltered corner for 1 to 2 hours until doubled in size.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes, turning the loaves to brown all sides evenly.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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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
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it an airy crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
- Butter or lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
The step that matters
Knead the dough for 15 minutes, adding only enough flour to prevent sticking. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff and dense, so the loaves rise less and turn out tough.
“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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