Skip to main content
Main

Home-made Bread

A simple loaf of bread made with flour, sugar, baking powder, yeast, milk, water, butter, egg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Home-made Bread

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Home-made Bread

4 loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift flour onto each large loaf.

  2. Add one cake compressed yeast for four loaves. (Test the yeast by adding salt, sugar, and lukewarm water; if fresh, it will be ready for the mixture in 20 minutes).

  3. Add one pint of "wetting" to each loaf. "Wetting" consists of 1-3 cups milk, scalded and cooled, and 2-3 cups water. Use discretion in having all ingredients at proper temperature.

  4. Mix ingredients with salt to taste, using sufficient flour to stiffen at once, and knead the dough for one hour.

Rise and shape

  1. Spread the top of the loaf with melted butter to prevent crusting; cover and let rise during the night.

  2. Next morning, handle only sufficiently to mold. (Finer bread is produced by braiding).

  3. Cover and raise slowly a second time; brush with beaten egg; sprinkle with poppy seed and bake.

Finish the bread

  1. When baked, brush with salt water and cover lightly.

Make the quick bread

  1. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together.

  2. Rub in the butter.

  3. Add the sugar.

  4. Add the beaten egg and the milk.

  5. Bake quickly, about 8 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0
Waternot 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 Kaufman, Nettie M. 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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 dough's structure once gluten develops through mixing and kneading.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise during the long overnight proof.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the quick dough, lifting it without any yeast or long rising.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and, brushed on top, keeps the crust soft.
Egg
Adds richness, and a beaten egg brushed on top gives the loaf a glossy, browned crust.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk sugars that help the crust brown and the crumb stay soft.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough for one hour. Long kneading develops gluten, the stretchy protein network that traps the gas from yeast and gives the loaf its chewy structure. Underworked dough rises poorly and bakes dense.

“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.

More bread recipes

Pudding 1,021Brown 420Graham 389Boston Brown 349Sauce 282Potato 263 See all 200 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipes