Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Third 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.
Prepare the dough
In a bowl, combine white flour, rye flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and yeast.
Add enough scalded and cooled milk to form a thick dough.
Let the dough rise until it cracks.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a pan.
Allow it to rise well before baking.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
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.
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Rye + corntop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together182 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,320 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Rye + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White flour
- Provides the main gluten structure that holds the loaf together.
- Rye flour
- Adds flavor and a denser crumb, with less gluten to trap gas than white flour.
- Yellow corn meal
- Adds corn flavor and a coarser, crumbly texture to the loaf.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.
- Compressed yeast
- Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until it cracks. Under-proofed dough bakes up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse. Yeast gas must fill the dough enough to stretch it, but the dough must still hold its shape in the oven.
“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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