Skip to main content
Bread

To Make White Unfermented Bread

A simple white bread made without yeast, leavened with baking soda and hydrochloric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

To Make White Unfermented 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. 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

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour and baking soda together.

  3. In a separate container, carefully mix the hydrochloric acid with the water.

Make the dough

  1. Gradually add the acid mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until combined.

  2. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, then shape it into a loaf.

Bake

  1. Place the loaf in a greased baking pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, which makes the loaf rise.
Hydrochloric acid
Reacts with the baking soda to produce the gas that leavens the dough.

The step that matters

Adding the acid mixture to the flour. The acid and baking soda start releasing gas as soon as they meet, so the acid should be stirred in gradually and evenly, and the dough shaped and baked without delay to keep the rise.

“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.

You might also like

CornbreadCornbread345 recipesBread PuddingBread Pudding336 recipesMilk Bread RollsMilk Bread Rolls242 recipesPotato BreadPotato Bread124 recipes