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Bread

A loaf of bread made with flour, bran water, scalding milk, salt, mashed potato, yeast, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

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

  1. In a large bowl, combine 5 quarts of flour, bran water, and scalding milk.

  2. Add salt, mashed potato, and yeast dissolved in warm water; stir vigorously until well mixed.

  3. Incorporate the remaining flour until fully combined.

  4. Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 20 minutes, using extra flour as needed to prevent sticking.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into 4 loaves and rub melted lard over each.

  2. Place in buttered pans, filling them halfway, and let rise in a warm place until puffy.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly done, about 5 to 7 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.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk 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

Flour
Provides the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light and airy.
Mashed potato
Adds moisture and starch, helping the loaf stay soft and moist.
Scalding milk
Adds moisture, richness, and browning from milk sugars to the crumb and crust.
Lard (in the method)
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives the crust a softer, richer finish.

The step that matters

Kneading for 20 minutes. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from yeast. Adding too much extra flour while kneading can make the dough stiff and dense.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Parsnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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