Skip to main content
Main

Quick Yeast Bread

A quick yeast bread made with flour, salt, water, yeast, and peanut oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,355 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Quick Yeast Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a large bowl.

  2. Make a hollow in the center.

  3. Add the salt.

  4. Pour in the warm water.

  5. Stir with one hand until a thin batter forms.

  6. Add the yeast.

  7. Mix thoroughly until a stiff dough forms.

  8. Transfer the dough to a floured surface.

  9. Knead for 20 minutes.

  10. Add flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Shape and rise

  1. Shape the dough into loaves.

  2. Place in well-oiled pans.

  3. Rub a little peanut oil over the tops of the loaves.

  4. Let them rise until doubled in size.

Bake

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

  2. Bake for 1 hour.

  3. Do not let the loaves crust over for the first 20 minutes.

  4. After 20 minutes, increase the oven temperature to 600°F (315°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Reduce to 350°F (175°C) for the last 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. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Potato + peanut oiltop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Flour + peanut oiltop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Potato yeast or compressed yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Warm water
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast.
Coarse sea salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens the dough's flavor and structure.

The step that matters

Kneading and proofing the dough. Kneading develops the gluten that traps gas, so the dough must be fully kneaded and allowed to rise until doubled for an open, even crumb.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, peanut oil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Welsh onionfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, peanut oil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes