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Straight Dough Bread

A yeast‑leavened corn flour bread baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,165 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Straight Dough Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Scald the corn flour.

  2. Make a medium dough with the yeast, sugar, lard, and water.

  3. When the dough rises, cut it over.

  4. Let it rise again.

  5. Work the dough over a second time.

  6. When light, scale off portions.

Shape and bake

  1. Round them on a bench.

  2. Mold the dough into rounds.

  3. Place on pans.

  4. Allow a little proof.

  5. Dust the tops with flour.

  6. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°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. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White corn flour
Forms the main body of the bread, giving it its corn flavor and crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning during baking.
Lard
Adds fat, which softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Water
Hydrates the flour and yeast so the dough can form and develop gluten structure.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before shaping. Yeast needs time to produce gas and build a light structure. Shaping or baking before the dough has risen enough leaves the bread dense.

“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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