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Bread

Vienna Bread

A yeast bread made with Vienna flour, butter, milk, and eggs, baked into rolls.

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 (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt and warm them slightly.

  2. Cream the yeast and sugar together, then beat the egg.

  3. Warm the butter and milk, then mix with the egg and yeast.

  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the center of the flour and mix to form a stiff, smooth dough.

Rise and shape

  1. Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours until it doubles in size.

  2. Shape the dough into fancy rolls and place them on a floured baking sheet.

  3. Let the rolls prove in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Once baked, brush each roll with 1 teaspoon of melted butter mixed with 1 teaspoon of milk.

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

Vienna flour
Provides the gluten structure that holds the dough and lets it stretch and rise.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the dough bind and bake with a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer crumb and richer flavor.
Milk
Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form a smooth dough.

The step that matters

Rising until doubled. The dough must rise fully in a warm place, since yeast gas creates the open crumb. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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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