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Milk Bread or Rolls

Milk Bread or Rolls is a soft loaf made with flour, yeast, milk, butter, sugar, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Milk Bread or Rolls

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a tray, make a hole in the center of the flour.

  2. Add yeast, egg, butter, salt, and sugar into the hole.

  3. Pour in a little warm milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually add the remaining flour and milk until a stiff dough forms.

  5. Knead the dough for a few minutes.

  6. Rub off any paste sticking to the tray with a little flour.

  7. Dust the tray with flour and place the dough back in.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead the dough again, shape it into loaves, and let it rise in a warm place until light.

  2. Brush the top with egg and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. For rolls, cut the dough into smaller pieces and follow the same steps.

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. 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 gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Egg
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the crumb set and the top brown.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, more tender crumb and richer flavor.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and adds softness and browning from its milk sugars.
Yeast (in the method)
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it an airy texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough again before shaping. Kneading develops the gluten network so the dough can trap gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes dense, while the rise before baking gives the loaf its light texture.

“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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