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Bread

Bread-crumb

A simple cake made from soaked bread crumbs, milk, egg, and flour, baked on a griddle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Bread-crumb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in milk for a few hours.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine soaked bread crumbs, beaten egg, and flour.

  2. Beat the mixture thoroughly.

Cook and serve

  1. Bake on a griddle until golden brown.

  2. Serve with sugar and butter.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Bread crumbs
Provide the bulk of the cake and absorb the milk, giving a soft, moist crumb.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs and adds moisture to the batter.
Egg
Binds the mixture together and adds structure as it sets.
Flour
Adds structure to the batter so the cake holds its shape.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture thoroughly. Thorough beating evenly distributes the egg and flour through the soaked crumbs, so the batter binds well and cooks to a uniform texture without dry or loose pockets.

“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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