Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Scald the milk and let it cool slightly.
In a large bowl, combine the scalded milk, all-purpose flour, sugar, and salt.
Dissolve the yeast cake in a small amount of warm water and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add whole wheat flour until the dough is kneadable.
Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
Rise and shape
Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.
Let it rise again until it has risen above the rim of the pan.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Whole wheat flour
- Forms the main structure of the loaf, with gluten developing as the dough is kneaded.
- Yeast cake
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the dough and browns the crust through its milk sugars.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-forming protein to help the dough hold its shape and rise.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.
The step that matters
Knead until smooth and elastic. Kneading aligns gluten proteins into a stretchy network that traps the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense, while the flour must be added gradually so the dough stays workable.
“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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