Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Croustades
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the bread
Cut slices of stale bread 1½ inches thick.
Use a 2-inch cutter to press out little drums from the bread.
With a 1½-inch cutter, press a circle half an inch deep in the tops of the drums.
Fry and fill
Fry the bread drums in hot fat until golden brown.
Remove the tops and scoop out the hollows.
Fill the hollows with mince and serve.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread
- Its dry, firm crumb holds its shape when cut and fried, forming a sturdy cup.
- Butter
- Fat for frying browns the bread surface and adds rich flavor and crisp texture.
The step that matters
Frying the bread drums until golden brown. Frying in hot fat seals and crisps the outside so the cups hold their shape and do not turn greasy or soggy. Too cool a pan lets the bread soak up fat, while overly high heat can scorch the outside before the inside is set.
“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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