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 ↓
Household White Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Scald the milk and water.
Pour the scalded milk and water over the butter, sugar, and salt.
Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water.
Wait until the milk and water cool to lukewarm.
Mix in 4 cups of flour with a wooden spoon.
Add the dissolved yeast.
Beat the dough well for five minutes.
Stir in more flour until the dough is stiff enough to turn out onto a floured surface.
Knead the dough for about 15 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed.
Rise and shape
Place the dough in a greased bowl.
Brush the dough lightly with butter.
Cover the dough.
Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Knead the dough again.
Let the dough rise for another hour.
Form the dough into loaves or rolls.
Place the loaves or rolls in greased pans.
Brush the loaves or rolls with melted butter.
Let the loaves or rolls stand for 1.5 hours until very light.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 60 minutes.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds softness and a tender crumb, with some browning from its milk sugars.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the bread moist.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Kneading and the long rises. Kneading develops the gluten that traps the gas yeast produces. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff and dense, so the loaf rises poorly.
“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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