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 ↓
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast in a little lukewarm water with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Combine the flour, lukewarm milk, and the yeast mixture.
Let the dough rise.
Add ¾ cup sugar, ½ cup lard and butter, a handful of salt, and lemon rind or nutmeg.
Mix in enough flour to make a stiff dough.
Let the dough rise again.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and place it in pans.
Top with melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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.
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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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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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Lukewarm milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
- Lard and butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise. The yeast needs warm, enough time to produce gas; under-proofed dough stays dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and turn sour.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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