Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓
Breakfast Breads
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, making a well in the center.
Pour the yeast and warm water into the well.
Gradually stir the flour into the liquid until fully combined.
Beat the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes.
If the dough is too stiff, add a little more water until it is half as thick as bread dough.
Cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place.
In the morning, stir the melted butter into the dough and beat for 2 minutes.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in a covered bowl in a warm place, turning it several times.
Grease muffin rings with lard and place them on a greased griddle that is warm but not hot.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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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