Name: Leaven Bread
Ingredients: 8 pounds flour or meal; 3 ounces leaven; 1 pint warm water; 2 large tablespoons good fresh yeast or 2 ounces German yeast; 3½ to 4 pints water or milk, or a mixture of both; 1 dessert spoonful coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') or more if preferred; butter for greasing the pans

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 ↓

Leaven Bread

Ingredients

8 pounds flour or meal
3 ounces leaven
1 pint warm water
2 large tablespoons good fresh yeast or 2 ounces German yeast
3½ to 4 pints water or milk, or a mixture of both
1 dessert spoonful coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') or more if preferred
butter for greasing the pans

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.

Make the dough

Mix the flour, leaven, and warm water in a large bowl.
Add the yeast and salt, then mix well.
Let the dough ferment and knead it as instructed in the previous recipe.

Shape and bake

Grease the baking pans with a little butter.
Place the dough in the pans and let it stand for 15 to 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Bake the loaves until golden brown.
Remove the loaves from the pans and turn them on their sides or upside down until cool.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour: Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and crumb.
Leaven: Sour starter that ferments the dough and helps it rise and develop flavour.
Yeast: Produces carbon dioxide during fermentation, leavening the dough so it rises.
Water: Hydrates the flour so gluten forms and keeps the dough moist during baking.

“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.