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Bread

To Make Milk Bread and Rolls

A yeast bread made with milk, butter, sugar, and eggs, shaped into rolls and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

To Make Milk Bread and Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Rub the butter into the flour.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in a little warm milk.

  3. Beat the eggs and add them to the yeast and milk mixture.

  4. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more warm milk.

  5. Work the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and pulls away from the pan.

  6. Cover the dough with a little flour and let it rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours.

Shape and rise

  1. Flour a board or slab and work the dough again.

  2. Shape the dough into rolls the size of an egg and place them on a floured baking tin.

  3. Let the rolls rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Brush the rolls with beaten egg before baking.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and softens the texture.
Eggs
Add richness and structure, and the beaten egg brushed on gives a glossy browned crust.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the dough.

The step that matters

Work the dough until smooth and pulls away from the pan. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-working leaves a dense, weak crumb, while the dough should feel smooth and elastic before its first rise.

“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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