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Whole-wheat Flour Bread

A yeast-leavened whole-wheat bread made with milk, boiling water, and a soft dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Flour 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. Break up the yeast in lukewarm water or measure the yeast into a bowl.

  2. Pour milk into another vessel and add boiling water.

  3. Stir in salt and sugar.

  4. Let it stand until slightly warmer than body temperature.

  5. Add the yeast mixture to the liquid.

  6. Mix in whole-wheat flour to form a batter.

  7. Beat with a wooden spoon for 5-6 minutes until light.

  8. Gradually add more flour until you have a soft dough manageable with floured hands.

Knead and rise

  1. Flour your kneading surface.

  2. Place the dough on it.

  3. Knead for 10 minutes.

  4. Cover with a light cloth.

  5. Let it rise for 3 hours until light.

  6. Knead quickly for 5 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves.

  2. Let rise until light.

  3. Bake small loaves for 45 minutes.

  4. Bake large loaves for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become light.
Whole-wheat flour
Forms the structure of the batter and dough, with its bran giving a firmer, denser crumb.
Milk
Adds richness and softness to the crumb and helps browning in the crust.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas to lighten the dough. Rising too short leaves a dense loaf, while the dough should be covered so it does not dry and form a skin.

“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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