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Whole Wheat Flour Bread

A loaf of whole wheat bread made with yeast, salt, water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Whole Wheat 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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix 3 quarts and 1 pint of whole wheat flour with the salt.

  2. Dissolve ¾ cake of Vienna yeast in 2½ pints of lukewarm water.

  3. Slowly pour the yeast mixture into the flour, mixing with your hands.

  4. Knead the dough thoroughly for 30 minutes, using reserved flour to prevent sticking.

  5. Let the dough rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. The next morning, divide the dough into three equal parts and knead each for 3 minutes.

  2. Place the dough in pans and let it rise moderately.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  4. Brush the top crust lightly with butter after removing from the oven.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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

Whole wheat flour
Forms the structure of the dough and gives the loaf its hearty, nutty texture.
Vienna yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Lukewarm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, letting gluten develop when kneaded.
Coarse sea salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the gluten, adding flavour to the bread.
Butter
Adds fat and softens the crust, giving it a tender, golden surface.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough thoroughly. Kneading aligns and strengthens gluten strands, which trap the gas produced by yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense and crumbly.

“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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