Name: Entire Wheat Bread
Ingredients: 2 quarts entire wheat flour; 2 quarts wheat flour; ½ cup molasses; 1 teaspoon Cottolene or lard; 1 quart tepid water; 1 yeast cake; salt to taste

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Entire Wheat Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the entire wheat flour, wheat flour, molasses, Cottolene or lard, tepid water, yeast cake, and salt.
Beat the mixture vigorously with a spoon until well combined.
In the morning, add just enough flour to shape the dough for the pans.
Divide the dough into three portions and place in greased pans.

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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,429 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wheat + molassestop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together702 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).