Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
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.
Mix the ingredients in a pail to minimize surface exposure.
Allow the sponge to rise for 9 to 10 hours until it doubles in size.
If using Royal yeast, always make a sponge first; otherwise, you can make the dough immediately.
Knead the dough for 2 to 3 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, then punch it down without kneading again.
Shape the dough into loaves, ensuring they are not too large.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and bake until golden brown, avoiding browning in the first 10 minutes.
Cool the bread quickly after removing it from the oven.
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.
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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