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Unfermented Whole- Wheat Bread

A loaf of whole wheat bread made without fermentation, baked for several hours.

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 wheat grain in a Mazda Grain Mill until medium coarse.

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

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

  4. Cover the dish with a cloth and let it sit in a cool place for 3 to 6 hours.

  5. Add a little finer-ground flour and knead the dough for about 30 minutes until it is gummy.

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.

  3. For a soft crust, roll the bread in a wet cloth for 1 to 2 minutes after baking.

  4. Wrap the cooled bread in wax or oiled paper and store 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

Freshly ground whole wheat flour
Forms the main structure of the bread as its proteins and starches set during baking.
Cooking or olive oil
Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Kneading until gummy. Kneading develops the dough's gluten network so it can hold its shape and trap gas; under-kneaded dough bakes up dense and crumbly.

“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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