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Compressed Yeast Bread

A yeast bread made with a thick batter that rises and is baked in a moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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

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.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.

  2. Stir in enough flour to make a thick batter.

  3. Cover the bowl with a thick cloth.

  4. Set it in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Stir in the dissolved salt.

  2. Add more flour and warm water to make a stiff dough.

  3. Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes.

  4. Divide the dough into loaves.

  5. Knead each loaf again.

  6. Place them in buttered baking tins.

  7. Cover the loaves with a thick cloth.

  8. Let them rise until doubled in size.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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).

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

Yeast (in the method)
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
Flour
Provides the gluten-forming structure that traps gas and holds the loaf's shape.
Lukewarm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast, forming the dough's moisture base.
Coarse sea salt
Adds flavour and tightens gluten, controlling how fast the yeast ferments.

The step that matters

Kneading and the final rise. Kneading develops gluten so the dough can trap gas. Letting the loaves rise until doubled gives the yeast time to inflate them before baking; underproofed loaves stay 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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