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Bread

French Bread

A yeasted loaf made with flour, milk, yeast, butter, sugar, and salt, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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French 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 ↓

French Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slack oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Sift the flour into a large bowl.

  2. Make a cavity in the center of the flour.

  3. Mix the lukewarm milk and yeast. Pour the mixture into the cavity.

  4. Incorporate some flour to form a light sponge.

  5. Let the sponge prove in a warm place for 1 hour.

Knead and prove

  1. Add the remaining lukewarm milk, butter, sugar, and salt.

  2. Knead the dough until stiff.

  3. Let the dough prove for another hour.

  4. Knead the dough again.

  5. Prove the dough for an additional hour.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into bricks.

  2. Place the bricks on baking tins.

  3. Let the bricks prove in a warm place for 30 minutes.

  4. Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Fine flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
Lukewarm milk
Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the crumb.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and contributes richness and flavor.
Loaf sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until stiff. Kneading develops the gluten that traps the gas from the yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes with a dense, crumbly texture.

“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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