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 Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the dough
Combine flour and salt in a large pan.
Cream yeast with sugar, then add ½ cup tepid water and mix well.
Add the remaining 2 cups tepid water to the yeast mixture.
Pour the mixture onto the flour and mix to form dough.
Knead dough well and let rise for 2 hours.
Shape and bake
Divide dough into two loaves and let rise for another 30 minutes.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 to 60 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.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 bread its structure and chew.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
- Tepid water
- Hydrates the flour to form dough and activates the yeast.
- Castor sugar
- Feeds the yeast so it ferments quickly and starts the rise.
The step that matters
Knead dough well. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps the gas from fermentation. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense and crumbly.
“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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