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Bread

Whole Wheat Bread

A yeast-leavened loaf made with whole wheat flour, milk, and lard or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Whole Wheat Bread

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 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in lukewarm water.

  2. Add the melted lard or butter, then gradually mix in the whole wheat flour until a manageable dough forms.

  3. Add the salt and knead the dough until smooth and elastic.

  4. Place the dough in a well-greased bowl, cover, and let it rise in a warm place for about two hours or until doubled in size.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the dough out onto a kneading board and shape it into loaves.

  2. Place the loaves in well-greased pans, cover, and let them rise again for about one hour or until light.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for one hour.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

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

Whole wheat flour
Forms the dough structure and gives the bread its hearty texture and flavor.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments sugars, making the dough rise and become light.
Lard or butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and softens the texture of the loaf.
Brown sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and mild molasses flavor.
Milk
Adds richness, softness, and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Kneading until smooth and elastic. Kneading develops gluten strands that trap the gas yeast produces. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and bakes up dense, while the dough should be checked for smoothness and elasticity before the first rise.

“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 whole wheat bread recipes

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