Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Breakfast Rolls
Ingredients
Directions
Bake the potatoes until soft, then mash them until smooth.
Mix the mashed potatoes with sugar, flour, and lukewarm water; beat for 5 minutes until foamy.
Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup lukewarm water and add to the foamy mixture.
Cover the bowl with a thick towel and let it rise in a warm place.
Before bedtime, combine the sponge with sifted flour, salt, sugar, and lard or butter; add enough lukewarm water to form a stiff dough.
Knead the dough for 30 minutes, adding flour to prevent sticking.
Place the dough in a buttered bowl, butter the top, cover, and let it rise until doubled in size.
Two hours before breakfast, knead the dough again for 5 minutes, then shape into rolls and loaves.
Place in buttered baking pans, brush with milk or butter, cover, and let rise until doubled.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, milk):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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