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Bread

English Brown Bread

A loaf of bread made from unbolted meal and fine flour, baked until golden brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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English Brown Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mix the unbolted meal with an equal measure of fine flour.

  2. Add water gradually to form a dough.

  3. Knead the dough until smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into loaves and place in a baking pan.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Unbolted meal
Provides the bran and coarse particles that give the bread its dense, hearty texture.
Fine flour
Supplies gluten-forming proteins that give the dough structure and allow it to hold its shape.

The step that matters

Adding water gradually. Coarse unbolted meal absorbs water at a different rate than fine flour, so adding water slowly lets you reach a smooth, workable dough without it becoming sticky or too 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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