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Bread

White Bread

A simple white bread made with boiling water, milk, yeast, and flour, baked to a golden loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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White Bread

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

White Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Pour boiling water into fresh milk or scalded milk.

  2. Add salt and butter, then let it cool to lukewarm.

  3. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a light batter. Beat vigorously for 3 to 5 minutes.

  5. Add more flour to form a dough that can be turned out onto a floured board.

  6. Knead the dough for about 20 minutes until it is firm and no longer sticky.

Rise and shape

  1. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover it, and let it rise in a warm place for about 3 hours or until doubled in size.

  2. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a loaf.

  3. Place the loaves in greased tins, cover, and let rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Bake and cool

  1. Brush the tops with cold water before baking. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

  2. Brush the tops again after removing from the oven.

  3. Turn out the loaves and let them cool uncovered for 3 to 4 hours.

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.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Milk
Adds softness, richness and browning to the crumb and crust.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough. Kneading for about 20 minutes develops the gluten network that traps gas from the yeast. Stopping early leaves a weak dough that rises poorly and bakes up dense.

“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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