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White Bread

A simple yeast bread made with water, salt, butter, sugar, yeast, and flour.

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

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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 dough

  1. Mix the yeast with a little lukewarm water until smooth.

  2. Add the yeast mixture to the remaining water with melted butter, sugar, and salt.

  3. Beat in about 2 cups of flour until the mixture is very elastic.

  4. Continue adding flour until the dough can be lifted out onto a board.

  5. Knead the dough until it is no longer sticky, avoiding adding too much flour.

First rise

  1. Grease the mixing bowl.

  2. Place the dough inside the bowl.

  3. Turn the dough to coat the top with oil.

  4. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn out the dough onto a lightly worked surface.

  2. Work the dough lightly.

  3. Shape the dough into a loaf.

  4. Place the loaf in a greased bread pan.

  5. Brush the top of the loaf with fat.

  6. Let the loaf rise again until doubled.

  7. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for at least 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and chew as it is kneaded.
Yeast
Ferments sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast and salt.

The step that matters

Knead until no longer sticky, without adding too much flour. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps gas. Extra flour makes the dough stiff and dense, so the loaf rises less and bakes up tougher.

“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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