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 ↓
Bread, Biscuits, and Breakfast-cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the starter
Peel the potatoes and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes.
Grate the potatoes and stir them into the boiling water for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and add sugar and salt.
Let the mixture cool until lukewarm.
Add the yeast and cover the mixture.
Let it ferment for 3 to 4 hours, stirring down when it rises.
Bottle the mixture, cork tightly, and store in a cool place for up to 2 weeks.
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast cake in a little lukewarm water and mix with all ingredients overnight.
Set the dough in a sheltered corner and cover with a cloth.
The next morning, knead for 15 minutes, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Shape and bake
Mold into loaves and place in greased pans, filling them no more than half full.
Cover and let rise in a sheltered corner for 1 to 2 hours until doubled in size.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes, turning the loaves to brown all sides.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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
- Potatoes
- Grated potato adds moisture and a soft, tender crumb to the bread.
- Yeast
- Yeast ferments the sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
- Sugar
- Sugar feeds the yeast during fermentation and adds mild sweetness and browning.
- Flour
- Flour forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Butter or lard
- Fat tenderises the crumb and adds richness to the loaf.
The step that matters
Knead the dough and control the flour. Adding flour gradually keeps the dough soft enough to knead well; too much flour makes the bread dense and dry, while kneading develops the gluten that traps gas for a good rise.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, butter):
- Arrowrootfits about as well
- Sweet potatofits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Leekfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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