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 ↓
Paeis Jockey-club Eecipe for Brioche
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sponge
Sift the flour.
Set aside one quarter of the sifted flour.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Mix the dissolved yeast with the reserved flour to make a sponge.
Let the sponge rise in a warm place until doubled in volume.
Make the dough
Make a hole in the remaining flour.
Add salt and sugar to the hole.
Dissolve the salt and sugar with two tablespoons of water.
Beat the butter and six eggs together.
Add the seventh egg to the mixture.
Combine the sponge with the egg mixture.
Beat the combined mixture until it pulls away from the bowl.
Cover the dough.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for four hours.
Turn the dough out onto a board.
Spread the dough on the board.
Fold the dough over itself four times.
Return the dough to the bowl.
Let the dough rise for another two hours.
Repeat the spreading and folding process.
Refrigerate the dough for two hours.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into two pieces, one larger than the other.
Form the larger piece into a ball with a depression for the smaller piece.
Make two to three gashes around the top of the ball.
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
- Forms the gluten network that gives the brioche its structure.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure, richness and moisture to the enriched dough.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Beat until the dough pulls away from the bowl. Thorough beating develops gluten so the dough can trap gas. Underbeating leaves a dense, greasy dough that rises poorly, while the rich butter and eggs need that strong structure to hold.
“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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