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Bread

To Sponge Bread

A loaf made by sponging a dough of water, salt, flour, yeast, molasses, and lard, then baking at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Rye and corn work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 182 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

To Sponge Bread

12 loaves

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sponge

  1. Set a heavy sponge using 2 buckets of water for a 4-bucket dough.

  2. Ensure the water is lukewarm; too hot will spoil the bread.

  3. Add 1/2 pound of coarse sea salt to the sponge.

Make and rise the dough

  1. Mix the remaining ingredients with the sponge to form the dough.

  2. Cut the dough over, then let the dough rise again.

Shape and bake

  1. Scale the dough into 12 loaves, round them, and place on greased pans.

  2. Dust the tops with flour.

  3. Bake in a solid oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Rye + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

White flour
Its gluten forms the elastic network that gives the loaves structure.
Yeast
Produces carbon dioxide as it ferments, making the dough rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acids in molasses to release gas, adding lift and a darker crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and deep colour, and feeds the yeast.
Lard
Adds fat that softens the crumb and keeps it tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, feeds the yeast and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Ensure the water is lukewarm. Yeast works best in lukewarm liquid. Water that is too hot can kill yeast cells, so the sponge will not rise and the dough will be poor.

“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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