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White Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with milk, butter, salt, and flour, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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White Bread

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

White 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 sponge

  1. Scald the milk in a double boiler until a thin skin forms on top.

  2. Pour the milk out and let it cool.

  3. Add butter to the milk and stir until melted.

  4. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and add it to the milk mixture.

  5. Mix in salt and enough flour to create a good batter.

  6. Beat energetically for 5 minutes.

  7. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let it rise in a warm place overnight.

Knead and rise

  1. Work in about 4 pints of flour by hand until a good dough forms.

  2. Knead the dough on a floured surface for 15 to 20 minutes until soft and well-mixed.

  3. Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise in a warm place until light, about 2 hours.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves and place the loaves in pans.

  2. Prick with a fork to release gas.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 50 to 60 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.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Milk
Adds moisture, softness and browning from milk sugars and proteins.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and strengthens gluten for a better-textured loaf.

The step that matters

Kneading the dough. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from the yeast. Too little kneading leaves a dense, crumbly loaf, while the dough should feel soft and smooth rather than stiff.

“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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