Name: Bread of Fine Wheat Flour
Ingredients: 2 cups fine wheat flour; ½ cup milk; ½ cup water; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon baking powder

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Bread of Fine Wheat Flour

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and shape the dough

In a bowl, mix the fine wheat flour, milk, water, coarse sea salt, and baking powder until a dough forms.
Knead the dough briefly and shape it as desired.

Bake and serve

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
For easier digestion, toast the bread after baking.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Fine wheat flour: Provides the main structure of the dough as its proteins and starches set when baked.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the dough, helping the bread rise and become lighter in texture.
Milk: Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps the crust brown.
Water: Hydrates the flour so the dough can form and develop structure.

“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.