Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bordyke Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt.
Make a hollow in the center and pour in the yeast, gradually diluting it with warm milk to form a thick batter.
Stir in the surrounding flour and cover with a thick layer of flour; let it rise for 1 to 1.5 hours.
Knead in more warm milk until the dough is firm and smooth but not stiff.
Let it rise for another hour, then divide into three loaves.
Shape and bake
Place the loaves in slightly buttered square tins or round baking pans.
Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Warm milk
- Hydrates the flour and yeast, forming the dough and adding softness and browning.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a finer texture.
The step that matters
Knead in the warm milk until firm but not stiff. Hydration controls dough texture. Too little liquid leaves the bread dense and dry, while too much makes it sticky and hard to shape. Adding the milk gradually lets you judge the right consistency.
“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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