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Bread

A Quick Loaf Bread

A quick loaf bread made with baking powder, whole wheat flour, cold water, and brushed with milk before baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk 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 ↓

A Quick Loaf 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. Sift the baking powder and whole wheat flour together four times.

  2. Quickly moisten the mixture with cold water until it is moist but stiff enough to mold.

  3. Knead and mold the dough into four loaves.

Bake and cool

  1. Brush the loaves with milk.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for one hour.

  3. Cool the loaves like yeast bread.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, lifting the loaves without any yeast.
Whole wheat flour
Forms the structure of the loaves as its proteins and starches set in the oven.
Cold water
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and can be shaped.
Milk
Promotes gentle browning and a soft golden crust on the baked loaves.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture quickly. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it contacts liquid and heat-free moisture, so delay weakens the lift. Stop adding water once the dough is moist but stiff enough to mold, since excess liquid makes a dense 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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