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Bread

Short Process or Straight Dough

A simple yeast dough that rises quickly and can be used for breads or rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Short Process or Straight Dough

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Soften the yeast with a small amount of the lukewarm liquid.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining lukewarm liquid, salt, sugar, and shortening.

  3. Add the softened yeast to the liquid mixture and stir well.

  4. Gradually add the sifted flour, mixing until the dough is of proper consistency.

  5. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes until it is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky.

  6. If the dough is too soft, add more flour; if too stiff, add a little water and knead until it no longer sticks.

Rise

  1. Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and let it rise in a warm place (80°F to 88°F) until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + potatotop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 dough its structure and elasticity.
Yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, causing the dough to rise and become airy.
Lukewarm liquid
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the other ingredients while keeping the yeast active.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning potential.

The step that matters

Adjusting the dough consistency. Flour absorbs liquid differently depending on humidity and measuring, so the dough can be too soft or too stiff. Adding flour or water in small amounts until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky keeps the gluten developing properly and the rise even.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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