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Bread

Vienna Bread

Vienna Bread is a yeast bread made with milk, water, lard, salt, and flour, baked until golden.

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

Vienna Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the yeast, salt, milk, water, and lard until smooth.

  2. Let the mixture stand for about 4 hours until it is almost dropping.

  3. Gradually add flour until the dough is similar to roll dough consistency.

  4. Let the dough rest for about 1 hour.

Shape and proof

  1. Roll the dough into long shapes with pointed ends.

  2. Place the loaves on cloth with layers of cloth between each loaf.

  3. Once the loaves have risen enough, transfer them to baking pans.

Score, glaze and bake

  1. Using a sharp knife, make three cuts across the top of each loaf.

  2. Brush the loaves with a little scalded flour for a glossy finish.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

  4. Create steam in the oven by throwing in a little water to keep the bread soft.

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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Yeast
Ferments the dough so it gains lift and a light, airy crumb.
Milk
Adds richness, softness and browning from its milk sugars and proteins.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a softer texture.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and shape.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand until almost dropping. Under-fermented dough will not rise well in the oven, while over-fermented dough loses strength and collapses. The dough needs enough time for yeast to build gas and gluten to develop without becoming slack.

“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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