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Bread

Milk and Water Bread

A yeast bread made with milk, water, lard, butter, and whole wheat flour, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Milk and Water Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast cake in lukewarm water.

  2. In a bowl, combine scalded milk, boiling water, lard, butter, and salt.

  3. Add the dissolved yeast to the mixture.

  4. Gradually mix in the sifted flour, starting with white flour and adding whole wheat flour until kneaded.

  5. If using whole wheat flour, add molasses.

  6. Knead the dough and let it rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves or biscuits and place in greased pans, filling them half full.

  2. Cover and let rise again until doubled.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

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

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

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
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast cake
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Milk
Adds richness and softness, and its sugars help the crust brown.
Lard
Shortens gluten strands, giving a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens color and flavor in whole wheat dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to expand the dough fully. Underproofed dough bakes up dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose its structure.

“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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