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Bread

Wheaten Bread

A simple wheat bread made with beaten meal, butter, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and milk-water mixture, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Wheaten 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the butter into the beaten meal.

  3. Add the baking soda, cream of tartar, and soft sugar, mixing well.

  4. Moisten the mixture with the milk and water to form a firm paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into a smooth round lump, about 1 inch thick.

  2. Mark the top with a knife and prick it with a fork.

  3. Bake on a greased tray for 20 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.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beaten meal
Provides the main structure of the bread.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the bread a tender, crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the mix to produce gas that lifts the bread.
Cream of tartar
Supplies acid that works with the baking soda to help the bread rise.
Soft sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.
Milk and water
Moistens the dry ingredients so they bind into a dough.

The step that matters

Moisten to a firm paste. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and dense, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Adding the liquid gradually lets you reach a firm but workable paste. Because the baking soda and cream of tartar start reacting once wet, shape and bake promptly after mixing.

“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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