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Bread

Light Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with flour, sour milk, and fine Indian meal, baked quickly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Light Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Take one quart of flour, four tablespoons of yeast, one tablespoon of granulated sugar, one dessert spoonful of lard, and a little salt.

  2. In summer, make up with cold water; in winter, with warm water.

  3. Make into a batch and work well for at least fifteen minutes.

  4. If it becomes light before the time for putting it to rise, work it over just a little without taking it from the bucket, or without adding flour.

  5. In summer, make it up at 11 o'clock; in winter about 9.

  6. Do not work it.

Shape and bake

  1. About an hour before baking, turn it out and make it into rolls as quickly as possible, adding just as little flour as you can get along with, to prevent it from adhering to the hands.

  2. It will be ready for tea.

  3. Bake in a quick oven.

Make the batter

  1. Beat two eggs very light.

  2. Mix alternately with them one pint sour milk (or buttermilk) and one pint of fine Indian meal, one teaspoon of soda dissolved in a little sour milk.

  3. Melt one tablespoon of butter and add to the mixture.

  4. Beat well.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

948Calories
27 gProtein
39 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Vehling, Joseph Dommers, 1879-1950. fmo. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Flour
Forms the main structure that the dough builds around.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Eggs
Add structure and lightness to the batter when beaten.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the soda.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the texture and flavour of the batter.

The step that matters

Do not over-work the dough, and add as little flour as possible when shaping. Extra flour dries the dough and makes rolls tough, while over-working a risen dough knocks out the gas that makes it light.

“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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