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Bread

French Bread

A large loaf of French bread made with flour, water, salt, malt extract, yeast, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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French Bread

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 ↓

French Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Mix equal amounts of water for sponge and dough.

  2. Allow sponge to rise until it drops.

Mix and rise the dough

  1. Mix the dough.

  2. Let it rise until fully proofed, about 13.5 hours.

  3. Work the dough.

  4. Let it rise for an additional 30 minutes.

  5. For straight dough, allow it to rise until very light.

  6. Fold it together.

  7. Let it rise twice more until light.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderately hot oven (350°F/175°C) with steam.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Malt + sugartop 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 traps gas and gives the loaf its structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, which makes the dough rise.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
Malt extract
Supplies sugars for yeast fermentation and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until fully proofed. Yeast gas gives the loaf its lift. Underproofed dough bakes dense and tight, while overproofed dough has weakened gluten and may collapse or turn 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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