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Bread

Date Bread

A yeast-leavened loaf made with white and whole wheat flour, molasses, sugar, and dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Date Bread

Why it works: Potato and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 235 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Date 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 sponge

  1. Mix lukewarm water, common white flour, potato yeast, and salt to create a sponge.

  2. Place the sponge in a warm area to rise overnight.

Make the dough

  1. Add molasses and sugar to the dough.

  2. Mix in the whole wheat flour.

  3. Stir in a slightly heaped pint of prepared dates.

  4. Allow the dough to rise again.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes, increasing the heat towards the end.

  2. Let the loaves cool for at least 12 hours before slicing.

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. Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wheat + datestop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Common white flour
Provides the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure and chew.
Potato yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Whole wheat flour
Adds bran and nutty flavour and firms the crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and darker colour to the crumb.
Prepared dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the loaf soft.

The step that matters

Let the loaves cool for at least 12 hours before slicing. Starch in the crumb is still setting as the bread cools. Slicing early releases steam and can leave a gummy, crumbly texture.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, sugar, wheat, dates):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, sugar, wheat, dates. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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