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123 Vienna Bread

A yeasted bread with butter, milk, egg, and sugar, baked until golden.

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 ↓

123 Vienna 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.

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then rub in the butter.

  2. Cream the yeast and sugar until liquid, then add the tepid milk and strain it into the center of the flour.

  3. Strain in the beaten egg and mix to form a smooth dough.

  4. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into fancy forms, place on a greased baking sheet, and let prove for about 15 minutes.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Brush with clarified butter before serving.

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 dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture to the dough and helps build a soft, tender crumb.
Egg
Adds richness and structure, helping the dough bind and set in baking.
Butter
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and contributes to a tender texture.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth to ferment well. Too cool and the dough rises slowly. Too hot and the yeast can die, leaving a dense loaf.

“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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