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Bread

Gluten Bread

A bread made with gluten flour, milk, water, yeast, eggs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Gluten Bread

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gluten 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the milk and warm water.

  2. Soak the yeast cake in a little warm water.

  3. Beat the eggs well and add them to the milk and water mixture.

  4. Stir in gluten flour until a soft dough forms.

  5. Work in the butter, kneading as you would ordinary bread dough.

Shape, rise and bake

  1. Mould the dough and place it in pans to rise.

  2. When the dough is light, 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Gluten flour
Provides the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the loaf set and hold together when baked.
Milk
Adds moisture, softness and some browning from its milk sugars.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Baking before it has risen well gives a dense loaf, while over-proofing can cause it to collapse.

“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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