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Bread

Soda Bread

Soda bread is a quick loaf made with flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, water, salt, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Soda Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, rub the cream of tartar into the flour.

  2. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water and set aside.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Gradually stir in a little salt and sweet milk to form a dough.

  2. Mould the dough into loaves.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes until light brown.

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and milk 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the loaf together as the dough sets.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that reacts with the bicarbonate of soda to help the bread rise.
Bicarbonate of soda
Releases carbon dioxide when combined with acid, lifting the loaf as it bakes.
Sweet milk
Moistens the flour and adds softness and browning to the crumb and crust.

The step that matters

Dissolving the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water. Bicarbonate needs an acid to react and produce gas. If it is not fully dissolved, pockets of soda stay unevenly distributed, causing patchy rising and bitter spots in the loaf.

“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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