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Bread

Whole Wheat Bread

A loaf of whole wheat bread made with milk, water, sugar, salt, yeast, and whole wheat flour.

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

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 batter

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Add the water to the milk.

  3. When lukewarm, add salt, sugar, and the yeast dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water.

  4. Stir in enough whole wheat flour to make a batter that will drop from the spoon.

  5. Beat continuously for 5 minutes.

  6. Cover and let stand in a warm place for 3 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Add enough whole wheat flour to make a dough.

  2. Knead into loaves.

  3. Place loaves in small greased pans.

  4. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Ferments the batter, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Whole wheat flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the loaves together, with a firmer crumb than white flour.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the crumb and helps browning in the oven.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Let the batter stand for 3 hours in a warm place. The yeast needs time and warmth to ferment and build gas and flavor. If the spot is too cold, the batter rises slowly and the loaves may be 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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