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Bread

Entire Wheat Bread

A loaf made from whole wheat flour, bread flour, milk, yeast, butter, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Entire Wheat Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Scald the milk and let it cool slightly.

  2. Dissolve the yeast cake in lukewarm water.

  3. In a large bowl, combine the scalded milk, melted butter, and sugar.

  4. Add the dissolved yeast to the mixture.

  5. Gradually mix in the bread flour and whole wheat flour until a stiff dough forms.

  6. Knead the dough until smooth.

  7. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.

  3. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until golden brown.

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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Bread + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread flour
Provides gluten strength to give the dough structure and a chewy crumb.
Whole wheat flour
Adds earthy flavor and a denser texture, and absorbs more liquid than white flour.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become airy.
Milk
Adds richness, softness, and browning from its milk sugars and proteins.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes flavor.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for proper rise. Underproofed dough bakes up dense, while overproofed dough can collapse and lose structure.

“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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