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Adirondack Bread

A yeasted bread made with butter, egg yolks, milk, cornmeal, flour, salt, and water, baked until hollow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Adirondack Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Warm the butter without letting it oil.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until light.

  3. Whisk the egg yolks into the milk.

  4. Gradually add the cornmeal and flour to the mixture.

  5. In a separate bowl, mix the sponge with the flour and salt.

  6. Gradually add tepid water until a dough forms.

Rise and shape

  1. Let the dough rise in a covered pan for 2 hours.

  2. Knead the dough into loaves.

  3. Let the loaves rise again.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake the loaves in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1.25 to 2 hours.

  2. Check if baked by tapping the underside for a hollow sound.

  3. Cool the loaves on their sides before storing.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the dough, giving a tender crumb and softer texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and its sugars contribute to browning in the crust.
Indian cornmeal
Gives the bread a coarse texture and sturdy structure alongside the flour.
Flour
Provides gluten structure so the dough holds its shape and rises.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and softens the crumb.

“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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