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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the dough
In a large bowl, combine the scalded and cooled milk, sugar, and salt.
Stir in the yeast until dissolved.
Gradually add the whole wheat flour, mixing until a dough forms.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.
Let it rise again until it reaches the top of the pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30‑40 minutes or until golden brown.
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 + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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
- Whole wheat flour
- Forms the dough's structure and gives the bread its body and nutty flavour.
- Yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments sugars, making the dough rise and become airy.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps it brown in the oven.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Kneading until smooth. Kneading develops gluten, the network that traps the gas from the yeast. Whole wheat flour has bran that cuts through gluten, so under-kneading can leave a dense loaf that rises poorly.
“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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