Name: Brioche with Head
Ingredients: brioche dough; butter; sugar; milk

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 ↓

Brioche with Head

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

brioche dough
butter
sugar
milk

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Shape the dough

Divide the chilled brioche into two pieces, one a fourth the size of the other.
Shape the larger piece into a round and flatten it evenly to fit a round sponge cake pan.
Make an open place in the center and gash the dough in four or five places on the inner edge.
Place the dough in a buttered pan.
Form the small piece into a ball and roll it on a floured surface.

Bake and finish

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about fifty minutes.
Brush with sugar dissolved in a little milk and serve hot or cold.

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).
Brioche + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together187 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Brioche + milktop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together91 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Brioche dough: Forms the rich, soft crumb that makes up the body of the bread.
Butter: Adds richness and flavour, and greases the pan so the dough does not stick.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the glazed surface brown in the oven.
Milk: Carries the sugar into a glaze and adds moisture and browning to the surface.

“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.