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Bread

French Bread

A simple loaf made with flour, salt, yeast, eggs, and warm milk.

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 brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk 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, combine flour and salt.

  2. Stir in yeast, egg yolks, egg whites (beaten separately), and warm milk.

  3. Mix until well combined into a thin dough.

  4. Let the dough rise for a few minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into loaves of desired size.

  2. Bake in an oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dough as its proteins develop into gluten.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes it rise and become airy.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, softening the crumb and aiding browning.
Egg whites
Add protein and moisture, helping the dough set and hold its shape when baked.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves the salt, and gives the dough softness and browning.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; if the dough rises too little the loaves will be dense, and rising too long can weaken the gluten so the bread collapses or tastes sour.

“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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