Skip to main content
Bread

French Bread

A yeast-leavened loaf made with flour, milk, butter, yeast, water, salt, and optionally glazed with egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
French Bread

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 ↓

French Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

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

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar and let it rise in a warm place.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour in a warm bowl.

  3. Pour the risen yeast into the center of the flour and sprinkle the salt around it, then let it rise.

  4. Add the lukewarm milk and knead to form a light, smooth dough.

  5. Let the dough rise for about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into rolls, twists, or fancy shapes and place them on greased baking sheets.

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

  3. When nearly cooked, brush the rolls with egg white or milk to glaze them.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 dough's gluten structure that traps gas and gives the bread its crumb.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk proteins that help browning and a soft crumb.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens gluten, giving the dough structure and flavor.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough carbon dioxide to expand the dough. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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.

More french bread recipes

Pudding 13and Rolls 3 See all 51 →

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes