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Bread

Quaker Bread

A yeast bread made with water, yeast, salt, sugar, lard, malt extract, and spring wheat flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Quaker Bread

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.

Mix the dough

  1. Combine lukewarm water, yeast, salt, sugar, lard, and malt extract in a large container.

  2. Gradually add clear spring wheat flour until a slack dough forms.

Rest and shape

  1. Let the dough stand for 3 hours.

  2. Cut the dough over and let it stand for another hour.

  3. Cut the dough over again and let it stand for 30 minutes.

  4. Punch the dough down, place it on a bench, scale it off, and mold it into pans with 2 loaves per pan.

Bake

  1. Allow for a short proof, then bake in a solid oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Malt + wheattop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Malt + flourtop 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

Clear spring wheat flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure and crumb.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast for fermentation and adds sweetness and some browning to the crust.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Malt extract
Provides sugars for the yeast and contributes flavor and crust color.

The step that matters

Short proof before baking. Shaped loaves must be allowed to rise briefly before baking. Under-proofed loaves stay dense and may split in the oven, while over-proofed loaves lose gas and can collapse or bake flat.

“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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