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Bread

German Bread

German bread is a yeast‑leavened loaf made with milk, sugar, lard or butter, flour, and topped with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

German Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine the boiled milk and yeast to create a rise.

  2. Once light, mix in the sugar and lard or butter.

  3. Add enough flour to form a soft dough that can be handled.

Shape and top

  1. Flour a surface and roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Divide the dough into two large pans.

  3. Make about a dozen indentations with your fingers on top.

  4. Place a small piece of butter in each indentation.

  5. Mix the tablespoon of sugar with the teaspoon of cinnamon and sift over the dough.

Rise and bake

  1. Allow the dough to rise again until light.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and its sugars help the crumb brown lightly.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and turn light.
Flour
Provides the gluten structure that holds the dough together and traps gas.
Lard or butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and softens its texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast during rising and adds sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Second rise until light. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough collapses. The dough should look visibly puffed and light before it goes into the oven, since yeast gas is what gives the bread its airy texture.

“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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