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Bread Sticks

A yeast-leavened bread stick made with milk, water, yeast, sugar, egg white, butter, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Sticks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Bring the milk to lukewarm and add the lukewarm water to it, then dissolve the yeast in this mixture.

  2. Stir in the sugar and well-beaten egg white.

  3. Warm the flour and add half to the mixture, stirring well, then add the melted butter and salt, followed by the remaining flour.

  4. Knead the dough for about five minutes until smooth and springy.

  5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover tightly, and set aside in a warm place until it doubles in bulk, about two hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Mold the dough into forms on a floured surface for baking on a greased sheet or bread stick pans.

  2. Roll the dough into long strings, about the size of a pencil, and cut into 4 or 5-inch lengths.

  3. Place on a greased pan, grease the tops, and let rise until nearly doubled in size.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until delicately browned.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 structure that the risen dough holds once kneaded and baked.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes to browning.
Egg white
Adds protein that helps bind the dough and supports its structure.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and promotes browning in the baked sticks.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that soften the crumb and aid browning.

The step that matters

Letting the dough fully double during the first rise. Yeast needs time and warmth to build gas and develop flavor and lightness. Rising too short leaves dense bread sticks, while the dough must be kneaded until smooth first so it can trap that gas.

“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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