Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Excellent Caraway Comfit Whigs, Buns, or Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Add the caraway comfits, egg yolks, ale yeast, and salt to the flour mixture.
Pour in the milk and mix until a dough forms.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and leaves your hands.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
Shape and bake
Roll pieces of the dough in powdered sugar and shape them into whigs or buns.
Place them on baking sheets and dust with a little sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven until crisp but not browned.
Serve
Serve hot or cold, and they are especially good toasted.
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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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
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).
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
- Unsalted butter
- Rubbed into the flour to add fat, tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough once combined with liquid.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and fat, helping the dough bind and giving a tender texture.
- Ale yeast
- Ferments the dough so it rises and develops a light, airy texture.
- Whole milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the dough.
- Powdered sugar
- Coats the shaped buns, adding sweetness and a delicate surface.
The step that matters
Bake until crisp but not browned. Sugar browns quickly at high heat, so pulling the buns once they are crisp but pale keeps them from turning bitter or dark while the interior dries out.
Swap the caraway
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Carawaythe original
- Jalapenofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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