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 ↓
Whole Wheat Bread
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 batter
Dissolve the yeast cakes in 1 cup of warm water.
Add salt and sugar, then enough flour to make a good batter.
Let the batter rise overnight.
Knead and rise
In the morning, add more flour to a bread pan and knead well.
Place the dough in a warm place until it rises, then knead again.
Repeat this process three times.
Shape and bake
Shape into loaves and let rise until light.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Yeast cakes
- Ferment the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaves their body.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning in the crust.
- Salt
- Controls yeast activity and strengthens the dough's texture and flavour.
The step that matters
Repeated kneading and rising. Kneading develops gluten so the dough can hold gas. Rising lets the yeast expand the dough. Repeating these steps builds structure and lightness, so skipping or rushing a rise can leave the bread 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.
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