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 ↓
Brioche
Ingredients
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.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour.
Combine sufficient milk with boiling water to make ¼ pint lukewarm.
Dissolve the butter and yeast in the lukewarm milk.
Add the beaten egg, salt, and sugar.
Gradually stir in the flour, working it with your hand.
Beat the mixture for ten minutes until the dough is less sticky.
Cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place until it quadruples in size.
Shape and bake
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide into pieces the size of a turkey's egg.
Shape the pieces into twists, knots, rolls, or other fancy shapes.
Place on buttered baking tins and let rise for another fifteen minutes.
Brush with beaten egg and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about twenty 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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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 + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chewy crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich flavour.
- Egg
- Adds structure and richness, and the beaten egg brushed on top promotes browning.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, making the dough rise.
- Milk
- Supplies the liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the yeast, adding softness.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning.
The step that matters
Beating and the first rise. Beating develops gluten so the dough holds gas, and the dough must be left to rise until it has quadrupled. Under-rising leaves a dense loaf, while the dough should stay warm and covered so the yeast keeps fermenting.
“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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