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Oatmeal Bread

A yeast-leavened bread made with oatmeal, flour, butter, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Bread

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Oatmeal Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Rub the butter into the flour until smooth.

  2. Mix in the brown sugar, salt, and oatmeal.

  3. Make a well in the center and add the yeast.

  4. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

  5. Work in enough warm milk to form a dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into equal portions and shape into flat round cakes.

  2. Place on baking dishes with space between each.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Split the cakes, butter them well, and close them again.

  2. Serve immediately on a hot dish.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Coats the flour and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once moistened and worked.
Oatmeal
Adds body, a soft texture, and a hearty oat flavor to the bread.
Brewers' yeast
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light during the rest.
Brown sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and mild molasses flavor.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Yeast needs warmth to ferment steadily; if the dough is cold it rises slowly and stays dense, while overly hot conditions can kill the yeast and stop the rise.

“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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