Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
White Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Boil 1 pint of water, then let it cool to lukewarm.
Dissolve the yeast in 4 tablespoons of lukewarm water and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the salt and sugar, then add 1 quart of flour.
Beat the mixture for 5 minutes, then add more flour until you have a kneadable dough.
Knead the dough until it is soft and elastic.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, grease the top, cover it, and let it rise in a warm place for 3 hours.
Shape and bake
Divide the dough into 4 loaves and place each in a greased pan.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour, then bake in a moderately hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars to produce gas, which makes the dough rise and become airy.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast and sugar.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning to the crust.
- Salt
- Strengthens gluten structure and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.
The step that matters
Kneading until soft and elastic. Kneading aligns gluten strands into a stretchy network that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and 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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