Name: French Bread
Ingredients: 3 quarts water; 1 quart milk; 1½ pints ale yeast; ¼ pound butter; 2 eggs; 1½ pecks flour; salt to taste

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 liquid

Warm the water and milk, adding salt.
Soak the ale yeast in a gallon of water overnight, then pour off the water.
Stir the yeast into the milk and water mixture.
Melt the butter in the mixture and stir until dissolved.

Make the dough

Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

Shape and bake

Shape the dough into rolls and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Ale yeast: Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and gives it flavour.
Eggs: Add protein that helps bind the dough and adds richness and structure.
Butter: Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
Milk: Adds sugars and proteins that help browning and give a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Soak the ale yeast and pour off the water. The yeast must be fully活 and active before it meets the dough. Yeast needs time to hydrate and wake up, and pouring off the soaking water removes liquid that would otherwise make the dough too wet and unpredictable.

“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.