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Dessert

A Solimemne

A sweet yeast bread made with flour, yeast, cream, butter, sugar, and eggs, baked until lightly colored.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,494 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Take 3 ounces of flour from ¾ pound and mix it with yeast and warm cream or milk to form a paste. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, make a hollow in the remaining flour and add salt, sugar, egg yolks, butter, and warm cream. Mix until smooth.

  3. Flatten the mixture on a surface, add the risen paste, and knead until well combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Place the dough in a well-buttered cake mold and let it rise until doubled in size.

  2. Brush the top with beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 45-60 minutes, until lightly colored.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from the mold, slice, and pour melted butter over the slices. Reassemble and serve immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become airy.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning at the surface.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until doubled in the mold. Yeast gas must expand the dough fully before baking; under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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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