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Bread

Salt Rising Bread

A bread made with corn meal, baking soda, salt, milk, water, spring and winter wheat flours, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Salt Rising Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the starter

  1. Combine corn meal, baking soda, and coarse sea salt in a pint bowl.

  2. Heat the fresh milk until it boils.

  3. Pour the boiled milk over the corn meal mixture.

  4. Stir the mixture for 1 minute.

  5. Set the mixture in a very warm place for 10 to 14 hours, or until it rises.

Make the sponge

  1. Add hot water and enough Spring wheat flour to make a stiff sponge in a 2‑gallon crock.

  2. Stir the sponge with a spatula.

  3. Add the risen mixture and the same amount of baking soda to the sponge.

  4. Stir again.

Make the dough and bake

  1. Transfer the light mixture to a dish pan with warm Winter wheat flour, 1 ounce of salt, and 3 quarts of hot water to make a light dough.

  2. Add more flour until the dough is manageable.

  3. Scale the dough.

  4. Place the dough in pans.

  5. Keep the dough warm.

  6. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°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. Corn + wheattop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn meal
Provides the starch and enzymes that ferment the mixture and leaven the bread.
Fresh milk
Supplies moisture and proteins that help the starter ferment and add richness to the crumb.
Spring wheat flour
Forms the gluten network of the sponge that traps gas as the starter rises.
Winter wheat flour
Builds the final dough structure, giving the loaves body and a sturdy crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with acids produced during fermentation to help the dough rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Let the starter rise fully. The starter must ferment long enough and in a warm place for wild bacteria to produce acids and gas. Under-fermented starter will not leaven the bread properly, while the warm environment keeps fermentation active.

“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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