Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Dissolve the yeast in water.
Combine all ingredients and add enough flour to form a batter that falls from a spoon.
Beat thoroughly and let rise for about 1 hour.
Make the dough
Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Do not knead.
Let rise for another hour, then form into loaves.
Let rise again until light.
Bake
Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).
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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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the loaves together as the gluten and starch set.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
- Milk
- Adds tenderness and softness to the crumb and helps the crust brown.
- Crisco
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a softer texture.
The step that matters
Beat the batter thoroughly, then keep the dough soft without kneading. Beating develops gluten in the batter, which gives the loaves their structure. Adding only enough flour keeps the dough soft, and skipping kneading avoids overworking it into a dense, tough loaf.
“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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