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Bread

Whole-wheat Bread

A yeast-leavened whole wheat bread made with milk, water, salt, sugar, butter, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole-wheat Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Heat the milk until steaming, then combine it with the water, salt, sugar, and butter.

  2. When lukewarm, dissolve ¼ of a yeast cake in ½ cup lukewarm water and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in enough whole wheat flour to create a thin batter.

  4. Let the batter rise in a warm place until 10 o'clock.

Knead and rise

  1. Add enough flour to form a soft dough and knead well.

  2. Let the dough rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. In the morning, stir down the dough and pour it into well-greased pans.

  2. Allow it to rise for half an hour.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the loaf its airy crumb.
Whole wheat flour
Forms the gluten and structure of the batter and gives the bread its hearty, nutty flavor.
Flour
Adds gluten so the soft dough can be kneaded and hold its shape.
Milk
Adds richness, softness, and browning from its milk sugars and proteins.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Letting the batter and dough rise fully. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough gas to raise the bread. Under-proofed dough stays dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse, so timing and warmth matter.

“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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