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
Scald the milk and add the water and salt.
When lukewarm, add the dissolved yeast cake.
Stir in 3 ½ cups of whole wheat flour and beat for 5 minutes.
Cover and let it stand in a warm place for 2 hours.
Slowly add 3 more ½ cups of flour and knead for 10 minutes.
Shape and bake
Divide the dough into 2 loaves and place in greased pans.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until light.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).
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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Wheat + flourtop 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).
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
- Whole wheat flour
- Forms the structure of the loaf and gives it a hearty, nutty flavour.
- Milk
- Adds richness, softness and browning to the crumb and crust.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise.
The step that matters
Kneading the flour into the dough. Adding the flour slowly and kneading develops gluten, which traps the gas from the yeast. Too little kneading leaves a dense, weak loaf.
“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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