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Bread

Adirondack Bread

A yeasted bread made with butter, egg yolks, milk, cornmeal, flour, salt, and water, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Adirondack Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Warm the butter without letting it oil.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs until light.

  3. Whisk the egg yolks into the milk.

  4. Gradually add the cornmeal and flour to the mixture.

  5. In a separate bowl, mix the sponge with the flour and salt.

Make and rise the dough

  1. Gradually add the tepid water until a dough forms.

  2. Let the dough rise in a covered pan in a warm place for about 2 hours.

Shape, bake and cool

  1. Knead the dough into loaves and let them rise again.

  2. Bake the loaves in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 1.25 to 2 hours.

  3. Check if the bread is baked by tapping the underside; it should sound hollow.

  4. Turn the loaf on its side after removing it from the oven to 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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Yolks add richness, emulsify the batter and help give a tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, and its milk sugars help the crust brown.
Cornmeal
Gives the bread its coarse texture and characteristic flavor.
Flour
Its proteins form gluten, giving the dough structure to hold its shape and rise.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually add the tepid water until a dough forms. Cornmeal and flour absorb liquid at different rates and at different amounts, so adding water slowly lets you stop when the dough is right. Too much water makes a slack dough that rises poorly and holds its shape badly when kneaded into loaves.

“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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