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Bread

Unfermented Whole-wheat Bread

A whole-wheat bread made without yeast, using a long fermentation period and baking at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Olive and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,100 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Unfermented Whole-wheat 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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Grind the wheat grain in a Mazdaznan Mill until medium coarse.

  2. Combine the lukewarm water, salt, sugar, and oil in a bowl.

  3. Stir in the flour until it forms a light paste, mixing rapidly and thoroughly.

  4. Cover the dish with a cloth.

  5. Let it sit in a cool place for 3 to 6 hours.

  6. Add a little finer ground flour.

  7. Knead the dough for about 30 minutes until it is gummy and rolls up like a ball.

Bake and store

  1. Place the dough in well-oiled pans, filling them no more than two-thirds full.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least 4 hours, without moving it for the first 3 hours.

  3. For a soft crust, roll the bread in a wet cloth for 1 to 2 minutes after removing it from the oven.

  4. Wrap the cooled bread in wax or oiled paper and store it in a dry place.

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. Olive + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,871 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + wheattop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,071 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Medium coarse whole wheat flour
Provides the structure of the loaf, as gluten forms when kneaded with water.
Lukewarm water
Hydrates the flour so the gluten can develop into a workable dough.
Cooking or olive oil
Adds moisture and tenderness and helps keep the crumb soft.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough. Kneading for about 30 minutes develops gluten so the dough holds its shape and traps gas. Under-kneaded dough bakes dense and crumbly, while the long, slow bake lets the interior set fully.

“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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