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Bread

Barley Bread

Barley Bread is a yeast‑leavened loaf made with whole‑wheat flour, barley meal, milk, water, molasses, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 185 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Barley Bread

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Boil the milk and water, then cool it.

  2. Add the yeast mixed with a little of the lukewarm liquid, molasses, and salt.

  3. Stir in the sifted flour and barley meal.

  4. Knead to a soft dough, adding more flour if necessary.

  5. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead a second time, form into loaves, and place in well-greased pans.

  2. Let rise a second time until doubled in bulk.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size of the loaves.

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. Wheat + barleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + barleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole-wheat flour
Provides the main structure as gluten develops during kneading and rising.
Barley meal
Adds earthy flavor and a denser, more tender crumb than wheat flour alone.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise to a light loaf.
Milk
Adds richness, softness, and some browning from its milk sugars.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and color to the crumb and crust.

The step that matters

Cool the boiled milk and water before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by hot liquid, so the mixture must be cooled to lukewarm before it is combined with the yeast to let fermentation start.

“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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