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 ↓
Bbeaefast and Dinner Bolls
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Melt the butter in a pitcher with boiling water. Add cold milk.
Pour into a bread pan. Stir in flour, yeast, sugar, and salt until smooth and light.
Cover with a cloth. Let rise until doubled in size.
Knead the dough on a floured surface.
Shape and rise
Roll it out to 1 inch thick. Cut into pieces.
Shape into rolls about 6 inches long.
Grease bread pans. Place rolls inside.
Let them rise for 1 hour.
Bake and finish
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Brush hot rolls with butter. Remove rolls from the pan.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 structure that holds the dough and gives the rolls their body.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas and develop structure; underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose its rise.
“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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