Name: Bread, Biscuits, Rolls, Muffins, Etc.
Ingredients: 2 cups flour; 1 tablespoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon sugar; ½ cup butter, melted; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 cup milk or water

Why it works: Butter and milk 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, Rolls, Muffins, Etc.

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

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, beaten eggs, and milk or water.

Mix and shape

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
If the batter is sour, dissolve a little baking soda in water and stir it in.
Knead the dough lightly and shape it into loaves or biscuits.

Bake

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake immediately for best results.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 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

Flour: Forms the structure that holds the bread or biscuit together as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the baked goods rise and become light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour in the finished bake.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, helping the dough bind and set in the oven.
Milk or water: Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and the dough becomes workable.

The step that matters

Stirring the wet and dry ingredients. Stir only until just combined. Overmixing develops too much gluten, which makes rolls, biscuits and muffins tough rather than tender.

“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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Bread, Biscuits, Rolls, Muffins, Etc.