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Bread

Remarks and Rules for Good Bread

A simple bread recipe using flour, yeast, liquid, butter or suet, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Remarks and Rules for Good Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift the flour to ensure it is clean and aerated.

  2. Scald a quart of water or milk and cool it to a moderate temperature.

Make and knead the dough

  1. Mix the cooled liquid with the flour and add the yeast to create a sponge.

  2. Knead the dough thoroughly until smooth.

  3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a clean cloth, and let it rise in a warm place.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, shape the dough and place it in baking pans.

  2. Let it rise again before baking in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Good flour
Provides the gluten network that traps gas and gives the bread its structure.
Lively yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments sugars, making the dough rise and become airy.
Water or milk
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast to get it working.
Butter or melted suet
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer, tender texture.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place. Yeast activity depends on temperature, so a cool spot slows fermentation and a hot one can kill yeast. Proper rising develops gas and flavour and gives the loaf its lightness.

“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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