Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
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.
Prepare
Sift enough flour for the amount of bread you want.
In a bowl, combine 1 quart of flour with 1 ¼ cups of water, 1 tablespoon of yeast, and 1 teaspoon of salt; stir well.
Add a handful of flour from each quart and mix thoroughly to form a sponge.
Set the sponge in a warm place until it becomes very light.
Shape and bake
Add the remaining flour and knead thoroughly.
Shape into loaves and let them rise until they begin to crack on top.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the loaves.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the loaves rise.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and yeast can become active.
- Salt
- Controls yeast activity and strengthens the dough's flavour and texture.
The step that matters
Let the sponge become very light. Yeast needs time in a warm place to ferment and build gas. Under-proofing leaves the bread dense, while the rise before baking gives the loaf its airy crumb.
“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.
More wheat bread recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.