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 ↓
Whole Wheat 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.
Make the dough
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
In a large bowl, mix the lard, sugar, salt, hot water, and milk.
Add the dissolved yeast and white flour, then mix well.
Gradually add whole wheat flour until a soft dough forms.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes.
Rise and shape
Let the dough rise until it doubles in size.
Place the dough in greased pans and let it rise until puffy.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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.
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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.
- White flour
- Its gluten gives the dough elasticity and structure to hold the rise.
- Whole wheat flour
- Adds bran and germ for a denser, heartier texture and a nuttier flavor.
- Lard
- Fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and golden browning in the crust.
- Milk
- Adds moisture, softness, and browning from its milk sugars.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise until it doubles in size. Yeast gas needs time to build up and be trapped by the gluten network. Stopping early gives a dense loaf, while letting it rise too long can weaken the structure and collapse the bread.
“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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