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 ↓
Vienna Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add the milk and let it cool to lukewarm.
Cream the yeast and sugar together, then pour the warm milk and butter mixture over it.
Strain this mixture into the flour and quickly work it into a light dough.
Rise and knead
Flour a clean bowl, place the dough inside, cover it with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 15-20 minutes.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into small rolls or place it in floured tins, cover, and let it rest for 10 minutes in a warm place.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the rolls for 15 minutes or longer, depending on their size.
Brush the rolls with milk just before they finish baking.
Check for doneness by inserting a clean skewer; if it comes out clean, the bread is done.
Carefully turn the bread onto a wire rack to cool, avoiding placing it in a cold area until it has cooled for some time.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Butter + sugartop 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
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the dough and gives the crust a golden colour when brushed on.
- Butter
- Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Knead and rise properly. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas yeast produces. Under-kneading or rising in a cold place leaves a dense loaf with poor volume.
“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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