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Bread

Quaker Breads

A quick bread made with flour, sugar, lard, optional cornmeal, malt extract, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar 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 ↓

Quaker Breads

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and lard.

  2. If using, add cornmeal mush or cornflour and malt extract.

  3. Gradually add water to form a dough.

  4. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic.

Shape, rise and bake

  1. Place the dough in a greased pan, shaping it into two loaves.

  2. Cover and let rise until doubled in size.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

  5. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing.

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. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Sugar + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

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

  3. Flour + malttop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 bread its structure.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps it soft.
Sugar
Feeds browning reactions, giving the crust a golden colour and mild sweetness.
Cornmeal mush or cornflour
Adds moisture and a slightly denser, tender texture when used.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps gas during rising. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes with a dense, crumbly texture.

“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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