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 ↓
Wheat Bread
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.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a hole in the center.
Pour in the yeast and stir lightly.
Add warm milk or cold water, and if using water, dissolve the butter in it.
Stir in the liquid lightly without mixing all the flour.
Cover the bowl with a thick towel and let it rise in a warm place until bubbly.
In the morning, add salt and mix in the remaining flour, kneading well.
Let the dough rise for two hours or until light.
Shape and bake
Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead until elastic.
Shape into loaves and place in baking tins, allowing them to rise until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
When ready, prick the loaves three or four times and bake.
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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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 + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Salt
- Strengthens the gluten structure and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.
- Butter
- Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer texture.
- Milk or water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and the dough can be kneaded.
The step that matters
Kneading until elastic. Kneading aligns gluten strands into a stretchy network that holds the gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes dense, while the dough must be fully developed before shaping.
“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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