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French Bread

A yeast bread made with milk, beer yeast, butter, sugar, salt, and flour, baked at 400°F.

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

  1. Mix warm milk with small beer yeast and strain.

  2. Add enough fine flour to create a batter consistency and let it rise in a warm place.

Make the dough

  1. Cream together butter, powdered sugar, and coarse sea salt.

  2. Incorporate the remaining flour into the butter mixture.

  3. Make a hole in the center and pour in the risen batter.

  4. Sprinkle flour over the mixture and cover to let it work.

  5. Use warm milk and water to adjust the dough consistency; it should be softer than regular bread dough.

  6. Knead the dough well and let it rise in a lump by the fire.

Bake and serve

  1. Shape the dough as desired and place on tin plates to rise for about 20 minutes.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven and serve hot.

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. Milk + beertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together298 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Small beer yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Fine flour
Provides the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaf its body.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer, tender texture.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that soften the crumb and aid browning.
Powdered loaf sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Adjusting the dough consistency. The dough should be softer than regular bread dough. Too little liquid makes a dry, dense loaf, while too much makes it hard to shape. Adding milk and water gradually lets you judge the texture by feel.

“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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