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Water Bread

A yeast bread made with water, butter, sugar, salt, and flour, baked until light and well browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour 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 ↓

Water 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.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.

  2. Pour hot liquid over butter, sugar, and salt.

  3. Add the yeast mixture when it is lukewarm.

  4. Add enough flour to knead until smooth and elastic.

  5. Set in a warm place. Cover.

  6. Let rise for 8 to 10 hours until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead again.

  2. Shape the dough.

  3. Fill pans halfway.

  4. Let rise until twice its original size.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 to 75 minutes until light and well browned.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure and elasticity.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and adds richness.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and contributes sweetness and browning in the crust.

The step that matters

Judging the first rise. The dough must rise until doubled, not just for a fixed time, because yeast activity depends on warmth. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while over-proofed dough may collapse and lose structure.

“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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