Name: Excellent Daibt-bbead, Made Without Yeast
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon pounded sugar; 50 grains pure carbonate of soda (about 1 teaspoon); ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 pound flour; sour buttermilk (enough to make a firm dough)

Why it works: Flour and buttermilk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Excellent Daibt-bbead, Made Without Yeast

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

1 teaspoon pounded sugar
50 grains pure carbonate of soda (about 1 teaspoon)
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 pound flour
sour buttermilk (enough to make a firm dough)

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dry mix

Blend the sugar and carbonate of soda together.
Mix the salt with the flour and rub the soda and sugar through a fine sieve into the flour.

Make and bake the loaf

Stir and combine well, then quickly make a firm dough with the sour buttermilk.
Bake the loaf in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 50 minutes.

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.

Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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

Flour: Forms the structure of the loaf once mixed with liquid.
Carbonate of soda: Reacts with the acid in the buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the loaf.
Sour buttermilk: Provides the acid that activates the soda and moistens the dough into a firm dough.
Pounded sugar: Adds a little sweetness and helps the crust brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Working the dough quickly after adding the buttermilk. Carbonate of soda starts reacting with the acid in the buttermilk as soon as they meet. Delaying the shaping and baking lets much of the gas escape before the loaf sets in the oven, leaving a dense result.

“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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Excellent Daibt-bbead, Made Without Yeast