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Bread

French Bread

A yeasted dough made with flour, eggs, yeast, salt, and milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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French Bread

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 ↓

French Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour, beaten and strained egg yolks and whites, yeast, and salt.

  2. Add enough warm milk to create a thin, light dough; stir well without kneading.

  3. Divide the dough into several wooden dishes, each holding about 1 quart.

  4. Set the dishes aside to rise.

Bake and finish

  1. Once risen, turn the dough out into a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. When baked, rasp the bread to finish.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 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

Fine flour
Provides the main structure that holds the dough together and sets when baked.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and tenderness to the crumb.
Egg whites
Add protein that helps structure the loaf and lighten its crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives the bread its airy texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the dough without kneading. Kneading would develop gluten strongly and toughen the crumb; stirring just until combined keeps the thin dough light and tender.

“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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