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A Solimemne

A sweet yeast bread baked in a cake mold, brushed with egg and served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,494 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

Make the yeast paste

  1. Take 3 ounces of flour and mix it with the yeast and warm cream or milk to form a paste. Cover and let it rise near a warm place for about 30 minutes.

Make and shape the dough

  1. In a large bowl, make a well in the remaining flour and add the salt, powdered sugar, egg yolks, lukewarm butter, and warm cream. Mix until smooth.

  2. Flatten the mixture on a surface, add the risen yeast paste, and knead lightly until well combined.

  3. Place the dough in a well-buttered cake mold and let it rise until doubled in size.

  4. Brush the top with beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour, until lightly colored.

  2. Remove from the mold, slice, and pour melted butter over the slices.

  3. Serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
Yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and tenderness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast produces the gas that lifts the dough. If the dough is underproofed the bread stays dense, and if it is overproofed it can collapse or bake up coarse.

“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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