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Bread

Plain Bread— Pan Loaves

A simple loaf of plain bread made with flour, yeast, salt, sugar, lard, 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 ↓

Plain Bread— Pan Loaves

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the salt and yeast separately in part of the water.

  2. Add the salt solution to the bulk of the water.

  3. Add sugar.

  4. Add the flour.

  5. Start to mix.

  6. After the machine is in operation, add the yeast.

  7. Continue to mix for several minutes.

  8. Add the lard or other shortening.

  9. Mix the dough thoroughly for 15 to 20 minutes.

Rise and shape

  1. Allow to rise until it recedes to the touch of the hand.

  2. Pull the ends and sides well in.

  3. Allow to rise again until light the second time.

  4. Scale and form into loaves.

  5. Allow to prove until double in size.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (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. Flour + sugartop 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens gluten, giving the bread flavor and structure.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Mixing the dough thoroughly. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the yeast's gas. If the dough is under-mixed, it will not hold its rise and the loaves will be 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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