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Bread

Rye and Wheat Bread

A loaf made from rye and wheat flour with a wheat bread sponge, salt, water, and buttered pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rye and Wheat Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Set a sponge overnight as for wheat bread.

  2. Sift the rye and wheat flour into a deep pan.

  3. Add the sponge and salt.

  4. Mix in enough water to form a moderately soft dough.

  5. Knead the dough well.

  6. Return the dough to the pan.

  7. Cover the pan.

  8. Place the pan in a warm area to rise until light.

Shape and bake

  1. Knead the dough again.

  2. Butter your pans.

  3. Shape the dough into loaves.

  4. Place the loaves in the pans.

  5. Cover the loaves with a clean towel.

  6. Let the loaves rise in a warm, elevated place until light.

  7. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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. Rye + wheattop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Forms a denser, darker crumb with a distinctive flavour, since it builds less gluten than wheat.
Wheat flour
Provides gluten structure so the dough can trap gas and rise.
Sponge
Pre-fermented starter that develops flavour and helps the dough rise.
Water
Hydrates the flours to form a moderately soft dough that can be kneaded and shaped.

The step that matters

Rising until light. Rye flour has little gluten, so the dough relies on the wheat flour and sponge to trap gas; under-proofing leaves a heavy loaf, while a warm place speeds fermentation.

“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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