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 ↓
Soda Bread
Ingredients
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.
Prepare the dough
Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and coarse sea salt together.
Make a well in the flour and add enough buttermilk to form a dough.
Knead the dough until smooth, then divide into 1½ pound portions.
Bake and serve
Place each portion on a flat baking sheet and brush the top with beaten egg.
Cover with round tins and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
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.
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Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Hungarian flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the loaf its structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide, lifting the loaf without yeast.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar and buttermilk to make the bread rise.
- Buttermilk
- Hydrates the flour into a dough and provides the acidity needed for the leavening reaction.
- Egg
- Brushed on top to promote even browning and a glossy golden crust.
The step that matters
Working the leavening into the dough. Baking soda and cream of tartar react as soon as they meet liquid, so the dough should be mixed and shaped promptly. Delaying the bake lets carbon dioxide escape, leaving a denser 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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