Name: Egg Bread
Ingredients: 9 oz fine wholemeal flour; 1 egg; ½ cup milk and water; 1 walnut-sized piece of butter

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 ↓

Egg Bread

Ingredients

9 oz fine wholemeal flour
1 egg
½ cup milk and water
1 walnut-sized piece of butter

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a small square baking tin with butter.

Mix and bake

In a bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, egg, and milk and water until smooth.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Finish

Let cool 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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Fine wholemeal flour: Forms the main structure and bulk of the bread, with a nutty flavour from the bran and germ.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds richness and structure as it sets during baking.
Milk and water: Provides the liquid that hydrates the flour and makes the batter smooth and pourable.
Butter: Greases the tin to prevent sticking and adds a little richness to the crumb and crust.