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Bread

Chicago French Bread

A yeast bread made with compressed yeast, water, salt, sugar, and flour, baked at 450°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Chicago French Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the dough

  1. Make a sponge with the yeast and 3 gallons of water at 75°F (24°C).

  2. Dissolve the salt and sugar in another 3 gallons of water at the same temperature.

  3. Combine the sponge and the salt-sugar water to form a medium firm dough.

  4. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size.

  5. Punch the dough down.

  6. Let the dough rise again until it is half its size.

Shape and proof

  1. Scale and mold the dough into loaves.

  2. Place the loaves in cloth-lined boxes dusted with flour, smooth side down.

  3. Allow the loaves to proof for about 45 minutes.

  4. Turn the loaves smooth side up onto a peel.

Bake

  1. Make 6 to 8 slanting cuts on top of the loaves.

  2. Wash the loaves with water.

  3. Bake at 450°F (230°C).

  4. Wash again with water or cornstarch wash before removing from the oven.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that leavens the dough so it rises.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and holds the rise.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
Sea salt
Strengthens gluten and controls yeast activity, adding flavor to the bread.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough loses gas and collapses. Judging the rise by size, not just time, helps the loaves spring well in the oven.

“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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