Name: Unleavened or Unfermented Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups flour; ½ cup water; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (optional); 1 teaspoon carbonate of ammonia (or 1 teaspoon baking soda with ½ teaspoon tartaric acid)

Unleavened or Unfermented Bread

Ingredients

2 cups flour
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt (optional)
1 teaspoon carbonate of ammonia (or 1 teaspoon baking soda with ½ teaspoon tartaric acid)

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the flour and salt (if using).
Dissolve the carbonate of ammonia (or baking soda and tartaric acid) in the water.

Shape and bake

Combine the wet and dry ingredients to form a dough.
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it on a baking sheet.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes until golden 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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the dough's structure once mixed with liquid and shaped.
Carbonate of ammonia: Releases gas as it heats, lifting the dough so it puffs in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with the tartaric acid to release gas, leavening the dough in the oven.
Tartaric acid: Acid that reacts with baking soda to produce gas for lift.

“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.