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 ↓
Fried Bread-orumbs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Rub the bread through a wire sieve or colander until fine.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Fry and drain
Add the bread crumbs and stir with a wooden spoon until they turn golden brown.
Spread the crumbs on a sieve and let them drain for ten minutes, turning them frequently.
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
- Bread
- Provides the crumbs that crisp and brown in the butter.
- Butter
- Fat that conducts heat to the crumbs, helping them brown and adding rich flavour.
The step that matters
Stirring the crumbs until golden brown. Crumbs can burn quickly once they start to colour, since the small pieces have a lot of surface area. Constant stirring over medium heat browns them evenly and prevents dark, bitter spots.
“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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