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Salt-raising Bread

A bread made by fermenting a salt and flour batter, then baking the dough.

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 ↓

Salt-raising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the yeast

  1. Scald a quart tin cup or earthen milk pitcher and fill it one-third full with warm water.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt, a pinch of brown sugar, and enough coarse flour to make a batter.

  3. Place the cup in a closed vessel half-filled with moderately hot water.

  4. Maintain an even temperature.

  5. Add 1 teaspoon of flour once or twice during fermentation.

  6. After about 5 hours, the yeast should rise to the top of the cup.

Make the dough

  1. Sift flour into a pan and make an opening in the center.

  2. Pour in the yeast.

  3. Stir in warm salted milk or milk and water until a pulpy mass forms.

  4. Cover the sponge and keep it warm for 1 hour.

  5. Knead the dough, adding flour to achieve the right consistency.

Bake and store

  1. Place the dough in warm, greased pans.

  2. Cover and let it rise until light.

  3. Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  4. Let the steam escape.

  5. Wrap the bread in damp towels and store in closed earthen jars.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Coarse flour
Feeds the fermenting yeast batter and forms the structure of the bread.
Additional flour
Builds the dough's structure and sets its consistency during kneading.
Warm milk
Adds moisture and richness to the dough and keeps it soft.
Salt
Controls yeast activity and adds flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Maintaining an even temperature during fermentation. Yeast ferments steadily only within a narrow warm range. Uneven or excessive heat can kill yeast or make it sour, while cold slows rising, so the sponge may fail to rise properly.

“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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