Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Family Loaf-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.
Prepare the dough
Warm 11 cups of flour in a tub or pan near the fire.
Mix the salt into the flour or work it into the dough later.
Combine the yeast with enough blood-warm water to make a mixture.
Make a deep hole in the center of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture.
Mix the flour and water with your hands until well incorporated.
Cover the mixture and let it rise near the fire until fermented.
Work in the remaining flour until a smooth, tough dough forms.
Bake
Shape the dough into loaves and place in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).
Bake for 1.5 to 2 hours, leaving the bread in the oven for an additional 30 minutes after it browns.
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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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 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
- Wheat flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
- Fresh yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise.
- Coarse sea salt
- Strengthens the gluten and controls the pace of fermentation for flavor.
The step that matters
Work in the remaining flour until a smooth, tough dough forms. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from fermentation. Too little working leaves a weak dough that rises poorly and bakes dense.
“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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