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White Bread

A yeast bread made with flour, salt, yeast, sugar, and tepid water, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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White Bread

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 ↓

White Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Mix and rest

  1. Rub flour and salt into a warm bowl and work until the chill is off.

  2. Make a well in the center, cream the yeast and sugar together, and add the water.

  3. Pour this mixture into the well and work the flour into it until it forms a batter.

  4. Sprinkle flour on top, cover with a cloth, and set in a warm place for 20 minutes until bubbly and spongy.

Knead and rise

  1. Knead the dough, adding more tepid water if necessary until it leaves the bowl clean.

  2. Turn the smooth side up, make two cuts across it, and let it rise for at least 1.5 hours.

  3. Divide the dough into three pieces, knead each, and place in buttered tins.

  4. Let rise for another 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, then move to a cooler part of the oven until done.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure and chew.
Yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, which makes the dough rise and turn spongy.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can develop, and sets the dough's final softness.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast early on and adds a little browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Knead the dough until it leaves the bowl clean. Kneading develops gluten so the dough holds gas and rises well. Adding water only as needed keeps it soft but not sticky, so the loaves keep their shape and 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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