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Bread

White Breads

A yeast-leavened white loaf made from flour, water, sugar, salt and yeast, with optional potato water or mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

White Breads

four loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Mix the yeast in two quarts water with 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 quarts sifted flour and 2 tablespoons salt.

  2. Use part potato water and some mashed potatoes if a richer bread is desired.

  3. Put in about half the flour and beat until smooth.

  4. Add the balance of the flour, or enough to make a firm dough.

  5. Knead until smooth and elastic.

  6. Place in a well-greased dish and cover.

  7. Set aside to rise overnight, or about nine hours.

  8. In the morning put in tins, raise and bake one hour.

Make the yeast starter

  1. Dissolve a compressed yeast cake in one-fourth cup of lukewarm potato water.

  2. Put in the can one pint of potato water and half a cup of sugar.

  3. When this is dissolved add the dissolved yeast, stir well and set in a warm place, but where it will not be heated perceptibly.

  4. Be sure not to cover till the whole is very light.

  5. Seal and set away till the day before you are ready to bake.

  6. Add another pint of lukewarm potato water and one-half cupful of sugar.

  7. Again let it rise till very light.

  8. Beat the yeast before using.

  9. Keep yeast very cool. If it gets sour you must begin again.

Shape and bake

  1. Half of yeast in can; enough warm water added to make one quart; one tablespoonful salt; three quarts flour.

  2. Make the bread at once, kneading thoroughly.

  3. Let rise till double in bulk, and shape into four loaves.

  4. Let rise again and bake 45 minutes.

  5. Knead and work until the dough feels velvety, then turn on molding board and work until the dough has blisters, then put back in pan and let rise about 30 minutes.

  6. Turn onto the molding board and work five minutes.

  7. Place in well greased baking pan, grease the loaf on top and put in warm place to rise until as large again.

  8. Have moderately hot oven and bake 40 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

665Calories
17 gProtein
1 gFat
145 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

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

By Chapel, Inie Gage, Mrs. [from old catalog]. 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + potatotop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough structure that traps gas and sets into the crumb when baked.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, which makes the dough rise and become light.
Potato water
Adds moisture and starch that help the dough stay soft and tender.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Keep yeast very cool. Yeast that is too warm or allowed to sour produces off-flavours and weak rising, so the bread may come out dense. Keeping it cool slows fermentation until it is needed.

Swap the potato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour. 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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