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Bread

Whole-wheat and Corn-flour Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with whole wheat, whole-wheat, and corn flour, sweetened with molasses or syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Whole-wheat and Corn-flour 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. 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine wheat flour, entire-wheat flour, and corn flour.

  2. Dissolve the yeast in the liquid and add to the flour mixture.

  3. Stir in molasses or syrup, fat, and salt until well combined.

  4. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.

  5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves and place in greased pans.

  2. Let rise again until doubled in size, then bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30-40 minutes.

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 + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together702 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the loaves their structure and chew.
Corn flour
Adds corn flavor and a tender, crumbly texture to the crumb.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, which makes the dough rise.
Molasses or syrup
Adds sweetness and color, and feeds the yeast during fermentation.
Fat
Tenderizes the crumb and adds richness to the loaves.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise to doubled size before baking. Yeast gas must fully expand the gluten network before baking. Underproofed loaves stay dense, while overproofed dough can collapse or lose structure in the oven.

“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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