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Whole Wheat Raisin Bread

A yeast bread made with whole wheat flour, raisins, milk, and water, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Whole Wheat Raisin 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. Scald the milk and add the salt.

  2. When lukewarm, stir in the dissolved yeast cake.

  3. Mix in enough whole wheat flour to make a soft dough.

  4. Beat the dough well.

  5. Let the dough rise in a warm place until very light and spongy.

  6. Add the floured and seeded raisins.

  7. Add enough more flour to make a stiff dough.

  8. Knead the dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Mold it into loaves.

  2. Place the loaves in greased pans.

  3. Let the loaves rise again until light.

  4. Brush the tops of the loaves with milk.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 40 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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
Provides the structure of the dough, building gluten and body as more flour is added.
Milk
Adds moisture, softness and richness to the crumb, and browns the crust when brushed on top.
Yeast cake
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise and turn light and spongy.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture pockets throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until very light and spongy. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce enough gas to lift the dough. Rising too short leaves a dense loaf, so the dough should look clearly puffed before you continue.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, wheat, flour):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, wheat, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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