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Bread Made From Dry Yeast

A loaf of bread made with dry yeast, flour, salt, butter or lard, and lukewarm water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bread Made From Dry Yeast

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a baking dish, combine 2 quarts of sifted flour and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Rub in 1 tablespoon of butter, Knut, or lard until well mixed.

  3. In a bowl, mix ½ teacup of baker's yeast with 1 pint of lukewarm water.

  4. Pour the yeast mixture into the center of the flour and mix with a large spoon until a dough forms.

  5. Knead the dough for about 30 minutes, adding more water or flour as needed.

Rise and shape

  1. Place the dough in a warm spot to rise until it doubles in size, about overnight.

  2. Knead the dough again with a little flour, shape into loaves, and let rise in pans.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. Remove from the pan and cool by leaning against something.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Baker's yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise and become airy.
Lukewarm water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and activates the yeast.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Salt
Adds flavor and controls yeast activity to keep the rise steady.

The step that matters

Knead the dough for about 30 minutes, adding more water or flour as needed. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Adjusting water or flour keeps the dough smooth and elastic rather than sticky or stiff, so it rises well.

“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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