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 ↓
Bordyke Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt. Make a hollow in the center.
Pour in the yeast diluted with warm milk, then work the mixture into a thick batter with the surrounding flour.
Dust a little flour on top and let it rise for 1 to 1½ hours.
Knead in more warm skimmed milk until the dough is firm and smooth, then let it rise for another hour.
Shape and bake
Divide the dough into three loaves.
Place them in buttered square tins or round baking pans.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1¼ hours.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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).
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 bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Skimmed milk
- Hydrates the flour and yeast, adding moisture and softness to the crumb.
- Salt
- Controls yeast activity and strengthens the gluten for a firmer dough.
The step that matters
Kneading in the warm milk. Adding milk gradually until the dough is firm and smooth lets the gluten develop evenly. Too much liquid makes the dough slack and sticky, while too little leaves it tight and dense.
“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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