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Bread

Whole-wheat Bread

A yeast-leavened loaf made with white and whole-wheat flour, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Whole-wheat Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup lukewarm water.

  2. In a bowl, mix ½ cup lukewarm water, 1 cup white flour, and the dissolved yeast to make a sponge.

  3. Cover and let it sit in a warm place (about 90°F) until light and foamy.

Make the dough

  1. Add ½ cup scalded milk, ½ teaspoon salt, and enough whole-wheat flour to form a stiff dough.

  2. Knead thoroughly and shape into a loaf.

Rise and bake

  1. Place the loaf in a greased pan, cover, and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  3. Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking for 1 hour.

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 + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

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

White flour
Forms the starter sponge with the yeast, giving the early fermentation something to feed on.
Whole-wheat flour
Provides the bulk of the structure and a nutty, denser crumb in the stiff dough.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Scalded milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and enriches the crumb and crust.

The step that matters

Letting the loaf rise until doubled. Yeast gas must fully expand the gluten network before baking. Underproofed loaves stay dense, while overproofed dough can collapse or bake with a coarse, weak structure.

“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.

More whole wheat bread recipes

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