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Bread Sticks

Bread sticks are small, elongated biscuits made from a yeast dough, baked until crisp.

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

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. Combine butter, sugar, and salt with scalded milk in a bowl until lukewarm.

  2. Add the dissolved yeast, beaten egg white, and flour.

  3. Mix until a dough forms.

  4. Knead the dough until smooth.

  5. Let the dough rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into small biscuits.

  2. Roll each biscuit into sticks 5 to 8 inches long.

  3. Place the sticks on a baking sheet.

  4. Let the sticks rise again.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  6. Reduce the heat to crisp and dry the sticks.

  7. Once baked, pile the sticks on a plate covered with a doily.

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. Butter + milktop 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.
Egg white
Adds protein that helps bind the dough and add structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that aid softness and gentle browning.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and some browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled in size. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas and develop the dough's structure. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed 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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