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White Bread

A basic yeast bread made with flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt, and lard or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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White Bread

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in lukewarm water; do not let it stand for more than 10 minutes.

  2. Add the melted lard or butter and half of the flour.

  3. Beat until smooth.

  4. Add the remaining flour, or enough to make a dough that can be handled, along with the salt.

  5. Knead until smooth and elastic.

  6. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and set aside in a warm place, free from drafts, until it rises, about 2 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Mold the dough into loaves and place in well-greased bread pans, filling them half full.

  2. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

  3. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolving the yeast in lukewarm water. Water that is too hot can kill yeast, while a long wait before mixing lets activity fade. Lukewarm water and prompt mixing keep the yeast active so the dough rises well.

“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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