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Bread

White Bread

A simple loaf made from white flour, cornmeal or rice flour, milk, butter, and water, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix white flour and cornmeal or rice flour.

  2. In a separate container, combine milk and melted butter or konut.

  3. Gradually add the milk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until a dough forms.

  4. Add water as needed to achieve a soft dough.

  5. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.

  6. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.

  2. Let it rise again until it reaches the top of the pan.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter 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

White flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as its proteins bond with liquid and kneading.
White cornmeal or rice flour
Adds a slightly coarser texture and mild flavor without much gluten structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the crumb brown in the oven.
Butter or konut
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness and flavor.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Yeast-driven rising builds gas bubbles and an airy crumb; under-proofing leaves a dense loaf, while over-proofing can collapse the structure.

“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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