Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Bread Baking
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Warm a deep dish and add the flour.
Make a hole in the center and mix in the warm water and yeast.
Add the remaining flour and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, combine the warm water, salt, and sugar.
Knead the dough with this mixture until it reaches the right consistency.
Shape, rise and bake
Shape the dough into 3 or 4 loaves and cover with a cloth.
Place the loaves in a warm area to rise for 4 to 5 hours.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 45 minutes.
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.
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wheaten flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
- Salt
- Strengthens gluten and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast so it becomes active and helps the crust brown.
The step that matters
Kneading with the salt and sugar mixture. Kneading develops the gluten that traps the gas from the yeast. Kneading until the dough reaches the right consistency gives a loaf that rises well and has an even crumb.
“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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