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Wholemeal Bread

A yeasted wholemeal loaf made with wheatmeal, yeast, sugar, salt, water, milk, butter, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Wholemeal Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Cream together the yeast and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Sift the wheatmeal and salt into another bowl.

  3. Make a well in the center.

  4. Pour in the tepid water and yeast mixture.

  5. Cover with a cloth.

  6. Let it rise for 40 minutes in a warm place.

  7. Knead the dough.

  8. Let it rise for 2 hours.

  9. Re-knead the dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide into loaves.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F / 200°C) for about 1 hour.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

German yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise.
Finely ground wheatmeal
Forms the main structure of the loaf through gluten and starch.
Tepid water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast to form a dough.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and adds flavor to the bread.

The step that matters

Re-knead the dough after the second rise. Kneading again knocks out large gas bubbles and redistributes the yeast, giving an even crumb. Skipping it can leave holes and uneven texture in the finished loaf.

“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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