Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Brioche Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Divide the flour into four parts. Use one part to make the leaven.
In a bowl, make a hollow in the flour and pour in the dissolved yeast and warm water.
Add enough tepid water to form a soft, smooth paste. Gather it into a ball.
Place the ball in a large bowl, score it lightly, cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for about 20 minutes.
In the remaining flour, make a hole in the center and add the salt, dissolved sugar, and tepid water.
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.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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