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Bread

Norwegian Bread

A yeast bread made with milk, salt, barley meal, graham flour, and wheat flour, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 185 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Norwegian 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Scald the milk and let it cool to lukewarm.

  2. Add salt and yeast, then mix well.

  3. Stir in barley meal, graham flour, and wheat flour.

  4. Beat the mixture hard for 10 minutes.

Rise and bake

  1. Pour into a greased bread pan.

  2. Cover with paper and let it rise in a warm place until very light and bubbly.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 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.

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. Barley + wheattop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + barleytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Barley meal
Adds a dense, earthy body and a nutty flavour to the loaf.
Graham flour
Contributes coarse bran and whole-grain texture, making the crumb heavier and more rustic.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten that gives the dough elasticity and helps it hold its risen shape.
Yeast
Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the loaf rise and become light.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, softening the crumb and aiding browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise until very light and bubbly. Yeast gas must expand the dough enough to lighten the heavy whole-grain flours. Under-proofing leaves a dense loaf, while the dough should be warm enough for yeast to stay active.

“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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