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Plain White Bread

A simple loaf made from flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and water, baked at 400°F.

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

Plain White 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 sponge

  1. Crumble the yeast into a basin, add sugar, and cover with warm water. Let it rise.

  2. Warm the flour in a bowl, pour the yeast mixture into a hole in the center, and stir in a little flour to make a batter.

  3. Sprinkle salt around the edges of the bowl and let it rise until it bubbles.

Knead and shape

  1. Knead in the remaining water until a light, smooth dough forms that does not stick to your fingers.

  2. Let it rise again for 1 to 1½ hours.

  3. Shape the dough into loaves, filling greased warm tins no more than halfway. Let them rise to the top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) initially, then reduce the heat gradually.

  2. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours, depending on size.

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 + 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 loaf its structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments the sugar and produces gas that makes the dough rise.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can develop and yeast can become active.
Salt
Tightens the gluten structure and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.

The step that matters

Knead in the remaining water until the dough is smooth. Adding the water gradually and kneading until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky lets gluten develop fully. A well-developed gluten network traps the gas from fermentation, so the loaf rises evenly and holds its shape.

“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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