Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the sponge
Pour 1 pint of milk into 1 pint of boiling water; let it cool to lukewarm.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt and the dissolved yeast in ½ cup of water; stir in enough flour to make a batter that drops from a spoon.
Beat continuously for 5 minutes, then cover and set in a warm place until light.
Knead and shape
Add more flour to form a dough, then knead on a board for 10 to 15 minutes until elastic.
Divide the dough into 4 loaves and place in 8x4x4 inch pans.
Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
Bake
Brush the tops with water and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, then lower to 350°F (175°C) and bake for 30 minutes.
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.
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour 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
- Whole wheat flour
- Provides the bulk and structure of the dough, with gluten that gives the loaves their chew.
- Milk
- Adds richness, softness and browning to the crumb and crust.
- Yeast
- Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise and become light.
The step that matters
Beating the batter and kneading until elastic. Beating develops gluten and kneading aligns it, giving the dough enough strength to trap the gas from the yeast. Under-working leaves a dense loaf that does not rise well.
“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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