Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Brioche
Ingredients
Directions
Moisten the bottom of a stewpan with tepid water and cover it. Let it rise in a warm place until doubled in volume.
Spread the flour in a circle and place salt and powdered sugar in the center. Add the eggs and half of the butter in small pieces.
Mix the butter and eggs, then gradually add the flour to form a smooth paste. Work it with your hands for consistency.
After five minutes, add the remaining butter and two eggs alternately, mixing until smooth and elastic.
Flatten the dough and cut it into pieces, gathering them up. Work the paste for three more minutes.
Place the dough in a bowl, cover, and let it rise for six hours in a cool place or until doubled in volume.
Once risen, work the dough again until it returns to its original condition.
Place it on a floured surface, flatten it, and fold the edges over the center. Transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate for 25 minutes.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
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