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Hovis or Wholemeal Bread

A yeast‑leavened loaf made with wholemeal flour, salt, yeast, sugar, water, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Hovis or Wholemeal Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a basin, combine the wholemeal flour and salt.

  2. Cream the yeast and sugar until liquid.

  3. Heat the milk and water until tepid, then pour over the yeast mixture.

  4. Strain this mixture into the center of the flour and cover.

  5. Let it stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.

  6. Mix the ingredients into a dough.

Rise and bake

  1. Transfer the dough to a well-greased small loaf or cake tin.

  2. Let it rise for 40 minutes until it reaches the top of the tin.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 45 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Flour and milk 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

Wholemeal or hovis flour
Provides the bulk of the structure and a nutty, hearty texture.
German yeast
Produces carbon dioxide gas that makes the dough rise.
Castor sugar
Feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown during baking.
Milk
Adds softness, richness and browning to the crumb and crust.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until it reaches the top of the tin. Yeast gas is what lifts the loaf. Rising too little leaves a dense, heavy bread, while over-proofing can cause the structure to collapse in the oven.

“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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