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Bread

Cornmeal Yeast Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with cornmeal, flour, sugar, fat, water, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Cornmeal Yeast 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. In a pot, bring the water to a boil and add the sugar, fat, and salt.

  2. Slowly stir in the cornmeal while constantly stirring.

  3. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool until lukewarm.

  4. Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup of warm water and add it to the cooled mixture.

  5. Add the flour and knead the dough well.

  6. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size, then knead again.

Shape and bake

  1. Place the dough in a pan and let it rise until light.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse texture and characteristic corn flavor.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that traps gas and gives the dough structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
Fat
Tenderizes the crumb and adds moisture and richness.

The step that matters

Cool the cornmeal mixture until lukewarm before adding the yeast. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to a hot mixture can stop the rise. Cooling to lukewarm keeps the yeast alive so the dough can rise properly.

“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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