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Bread

Vienna Bread

Vienna Bread is a yeast‑leavened roll made with flour, egg, butter, sugar, milk, yeast, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Vienna Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour and a pinch of salt.

  2. In a small bowl, combine the yeast and sugar until liquid.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the milk, and warm it slightly.

  4. Pour the warm milk mixture into the yeast mixture and mix well.

  5. Make a well in the center of the flour, pour in the yeast mixture, and combine to form a dough.

  6. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.

  7. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 10 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into pieces and shape into rolls.

  2. Place the rolls on a floured baking sheet and let them prove for 10 minutes.

  3. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) until golden.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 bread its structure.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins help browning.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds flavor.
Egg
Adds structure, richness, and moisture to the dough.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast activity depends on warmth and time; too cool and the dough stays dense, while the gas it produces is what gives the rolls their airy texture. Under-proofing or over-proofing both weaken the final crumb.

“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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