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Bread

Entire Wheat Bread

A loaf of bread made with white and whole wheat flour, yeast, milk, water, lard, butter, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Entire Wheat Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in the tepid water.

  2. In a bowl, combine the milk, salt, and sugar.

  3. Add the dissolved yeast mixture to the bowl.

  4. Gradually add the flours, reserving some for kneading.

  5. Knead the dough thoroughly, keeping it soft.

  6. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 2 to 2.5 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Once risen, turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide it in half.

  2. Knead each half again thoroughly.

  3. Place the dough in greased pans and let it rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour.

  5. After baking, remove from pans and cool on a rack.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Whole wheat flour
Provides the bulk of the structure and a hearty, nutty flavor.
White flour
Adds gluten strength so the loaf holds its shape and rises well.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, which makes the dough rise.
Milk
Adds moisture, softness, and a tender crumb to the dough.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the bread soft.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Keeping the dough soft while kneading. Adding too much flour makes the dough stiff and dense, which limits rise and produces a heavy loaf. Adding flour gradually and stopping once the dough is soft keeps it light.

“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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