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Bread

Compressed Yeast Bread

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓

Compressed Yeast 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. Soak the compressed yeast in ½ cup of warm water for 30 minutes.

  2. Add 1 cup of warm water or warm milk, salt, sugar, and flour. Stir well.

  3. Cover with a thin cloth.

  4. Place in a warm area for 2 hours until very light.

  5. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  6. Knead until smooth.

Shape and rise

  1. Divide the dough into loaves, filling the pans halfway. Cover.

  2. Let rise for 1 hour or until pans are full.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on loaf size.

  2. Brush the tops with softened butter before they brown for a tender crust.

  3. Turn out the loaves quickly.

  4. Stand them on end to cool, covered with a thin cloth until cold.

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. Flour + buttertop 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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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

Compressed yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that traps gas and gives the loaf its body.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, bringing the dough together.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and contributes to browning of the crust.
Butter
Softened butter brushed on the tops adds fat for a tender crust and richer browning.

The step that matters

Knead until smooth. Kneading develops gluten, the stretchy network that traps the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense and coarse.

“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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