Why it works: Wheat and rye match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Rye Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Scald the milk.
In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar and salt (and fat, if using).
Pour the hot milk over the mixture.
Let the mixture cool to lukewarm.
Mix the yeast with a little lukewarm liquid.
Add the yeast mixture to the rest.
Let it sit in a warm place for 1 hour.
Add the flour immediately, a little at a time, and mix well.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface.
Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is not sticky.
Rise and shape
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place for 1¼ hours.
Cut down the dough from the sides of the bowl.
Grease your hands slightly and knead a little.
Let the dough rise again for 1 hour.
Place the dough in a 6-quart bowl.
Line the bowl with a cloth dusted with flour.
When the dough has risen to the top, turn it out onto a hot baking sheet.
Bake
Sprinkle the baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of flour.
Immediately place the dough in a very hot oven.
After 10 minutes, lower the temperature.
Bake for 1 hour.
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.
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Wheat + ryetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together404 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,320 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + ryetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together918 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rye flour
- Gives the bread its characteristic flavour and a denser, moister crumb than wheat flour alone.
- Wheat flour
- Adds gluten that gives the dough structure and elasticity so it can hold rising gas.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars and produces carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise and become light.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness, and its proteins help give a soft, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and encourages browning on the crust during baking.
The step that matters
Placing the dough in a very hot oven immediately. Heat gives a burst of oven spring as the yeast gas expands, so delaying the move risks a flatter, denser loaf. Lowering the temperature after 10 minutes then lets the interior finish cooking without over-browning the crust.
“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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