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Bread Sticks

Bread sticks are yeast‑leavened rolls shaped into sticks, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Add salt, sugar, and butter to the scalded milk.

  2. Let the mixture cool to lukewarm.

  3. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add it to the milk mixture.

  4. Beat in the egg white and enough flour to make a batter. Beat thoroughly.

  5. Allow the batter to rise for one hour if you want a quicker fermentation.

  6. Knead the dough until stiff.

  7. Let the dough rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into sticks about the size of a lead pencil, rolling them under your hands.

  2. Place the sticks on a baking sheet, ensuring they are spaced apart.

  3. Let them rise again until light.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  5. Reduce the heat to crisp the sticks as they bake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Milk
Provides the liquid and body that make up the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavor.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Egg white
Adds protein that helps bind the dough and give it structure.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure.

The step that matters

Reduce the heat while baking. A hot oven sets the outside quickly, and lowering the heat afterward lets the sticks dry out and crisp through without over-browning.

“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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