Why it works: Flour and sugar 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 ↓
White Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the sponge
Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water.
Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter and let it rise until doubled in size.
Mix and rest the dough
In a bread pan, combine 4 quarts of flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and lard.
Pour the batter into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, adding enough lukewarm water to form a firm dough.
Knead the dough for 20 minutes, then cover and let it stand overnight.
Shape and bake
In the morning, shape the dough into loaves without kneading again, let rise, and bake in a moderate oven (350°F) for 30 minutes.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the loaves their structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the batter, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
- Lard
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds a little sweetness and browning in the crust.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidity in the dough to add a little extra lift and browning.
The step that matters
Kneading the dough for 20 minutes, then resting overnight. Kneading develops the gluten that gives structure. Because the dough is not kneaded again after the overnight rest, the gluten must be well developed at this stage, and the long rest lets yeast slowly ferment the dough.
“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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