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Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with sour milk and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bread

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 starter

  1. Boil the sour milk.

  2. Pour the boiled sour milk over 2 large tablespoons of flour.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Add enough flour to make a thin batter.

  5. Mix in ½ teacup of jug yeast.

  6. Let the batter stand overnight.

Make the dough

  1. In the morning, mix in enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  2. Knead the dough well.

  3. Let the dough rise in a bowl until very light.

Shape and bake

  1. Mould the dough into four loaves.

  2. Let the loaves rise again before baking.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Sour milk
Supplies liquid and acidity that help the batter ferment and develop flavour.
Flour
Builds gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaves their chewy texture.
Jug yeast
Produces carbon dioxide that makes the dough rise.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a bowl until very light. Yeast gas expands the dough and forms the airy crumb. If the dough is not risen enough, the loaves will be dense, and kneading and shaping will not restore the lost 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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